


what if we had been human?

by cxlesstial



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Bisexual Casey Jones (TMNT), Capritello, Donatello (TMNT) Needs a Hug, F/F, F/M, Family Bonding, Family Issues, Found Family, God I hate tagging, Human AU, Human Turtles (TMNT), M/M, Team as Family, high school fic but its different, ok ill tag more later this sucks, pansexual april, poc tmnt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:27:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 31,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25619602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cxlesstial/pseuds/cxlesstial
Summary: Mikey’s talking animatedly to the two of them but neither are listening as Donnie and April finally come to a stop in front of them. April feels that nervousness in the pit of her stomach again, but Donnie has no time for pleasantries and introduces them quickly. “Guys, this is April. April, that’s Leo, that’s Raph, and I have no fucking clue where Casey is.”april and her dad finally leave new hampton to start over in new york, but april's new school is way more dangerous than anything she's faced before. poc & human turtles based off of leviathan-fanart's designs on tumblr :-)
Relationships: Casey Jones/April O'Neil (TMNT), Donatello/April O'Neil (TMNT), Donatello/Casey Jones (TMNT), Donatello/Casey Jones/April O'Neil (TMNT), Karai/Shinigami (TMNT)
Comments: 32
Kudos: 39





	1. i see the look in your eye and im biting my tounge

April was...different from other girls. She'd been chased, she'd been nearly captured, and she was far from what anyone would consider a normal teenage girl going on her 17th year.

So when April felt...uncharacteristically _nervous_ for her first day in her new highschool, she'd immediately felt annoyed. She wasn’t scared of anything much anymore, had forced herself not to be scared of anything. She couldn’t get far in life if she denied every opportunity that came at her just because of her past. Sighing inwardly as they approached the building, she forced the rising feelings of unease straight back down and murmured a goodbye to her anxious father, stepping out of the van and onto the worn black pavement underneath. _You can do this, April. You’ve faced worse._

She supposed New York was nice; the buildings rose higher than anything she’d ever seen and the criminals were even wilder; muggers and thieves and offenders (oh my!) in every abandoned alleyway. The people were snappy and swift, people that took no shit, which pleased April privately to no ends because she’d known right away that she’d fit right in. She missed the privacy of her farmhouse back in New Hampton, but her father was right, it was time to move on. It had been years since her mother had disappeared and she really wasn’t coming back. 

They _should_ have moved on years ago, really. The Kraang weren’t going to stop hunting them. It’d been quiet for almost a year, but she can sense that that peace is running out. How long before something happens?

No. She _can’t_ think about that, not now. She’d go insane. 

Stopping in front of her new school (a towering brown imposing looking building that looks straight out of the Mean Girls universe), April O’Neil pulls her long strawberry blonde hair into a ponytail, letting it brush against her lower back as she begins to walk up the couple dozen stairs into the school. Junior year was going to be fun.

\--

Her first class was Algebra Two (she fucking _hates_ Algebra, Geometry was so much easier) and she swallows as she approaches the classroom, walking through the open door with a confidence she can’t really feel anymore. The class was full of kids already, even though there was still two minutes before the bell rang and the hallways were still packed. The kids pay her no mind, too engrossed in their own conversations with each other, so April looks at the front board to see if there were any instructions. 

Of course there was a seating chart. Figures. April glances at the name next to her’s and feels her eyebrows scrunch together. _Donatello?_

She and this Donatello guy are in the third row back on the left side of the room, so April has to walk in front of the teachers abandoned desk to get there. When she reaches her new desk, her eyes widen at the guy who now shared a desk with her. He was... _attractive_. Tall, dark skin, with brown unruly hair and a purple streak near the front. He must have seen her out of the corner of his eye because he glances up from his phone. 

He freezes, eyes flitting up and down her form in milliseconds before settling on her face, analyzing her features. Swallowing thickly, April comes around the side of the desk and sits down next to him, tucking her backpack under the desk. _Do not make this awkward._ “Hey, I’m April,” she sticks a hand out to him, smiling with her stupid heart doing somersaults in her chest, and he doesn’t wait a beat before answering with a quiet voice.

“I’m Donatello, but uh...people call me Donnie,” he says, meeting her hand with his own and shaking it slightly. His arm is muscled, lean, and she wonders a bit if he works out. “Nice to meet you,” he says politely, and she beams. Maybe this class won’t be too bad.

“You, too. Donatello? Like the Italian sculptor?” she asks, resting her cheek on her hand as she studies him. He’s wearing a purple sweatshirt with the words _Science, baby!_ printed in big loopy letters on the front. He has bags under his eyes, small but noticeable if someone was studying him like she was.

“Yeah, my Dad named my brothers and I after these Reconnaissance artists when he and my mother adopted us,” he says, looking a bit surprised that she had asked. “Seems a bit strange, I know, but at least no one else has the same name that I do.”

“It’s nice, not strange! Your name is cool, mine’s just April - and I wasn’t even born in April. November 28th,” she pouts. He laughs, and she decides she likes talking to him. “How many brothers do you have?”

“Three, two older, one younger,” he says, putting his phone back in his pocket but keeping his body language forward, completely angled towards her and focused on their conversation. “All equally annoying.”

“Three brothers? Must be a handful.”

“Only child?”

“Yep.”

“Damn,” Donnie raises his eyebrows at that, but doesn’t comment further. “I, um, haven’t seen you around here before.”

“I’m new,” she looks away, back towards the front. The bell rings, and a few stragglers come running in, but their teacher still isn’t here. 

“Oh! That’s why,” Donnie says sheepishly. “You’re a junior too?”

“Yeah,” she glances back at him, only to see him fishing around in his backpack. He pulls a tan piece of paper out of a binder and meets her glance.

“Can I see your schedule?”

“Yeah, hold up,” April reaches under their desk and pulls her backpack towards her, pulling the paper out of her folder. She places it next to his and gets ready to explain all of the AP classes on there. “I, um - wanted to get into a good college, so I took like ten billion AP classes -

“We have most of our classes together,” he says, not really listening at all, and she’s so shocked she almost bumps into him as she leans down to confirm. AP Junior English, AP Psychology, AP Environmental Bio… they even have the same lunch. Only their electives are different. “You have art with Mikey and Casey, though. And...you’re in cross country?” he asks. April nods, hoping he wasn’t one of those people that were like _oh you’re in cross country? that seems like suicide why would you willingly run?_ But Donnie chuckles. “Leo and Raph take it too.”

“Who?” 

“Er - well, Leonardo and Raphael are my two older brothers. We call them Leo and Raph. We all run, but Leo and Raph have always been the best at it, and they’re the most cocky and competitive out of all of us. Michelangelo’s my younger brother, we call him Mikey. You’re in art with him and Casey - a family friend and my boyfriend.”

“Boyfriend?” she asks, and she notices the way he tenses before continuing hastily. “No! I don’t judge at all! I’m pansexual myself, I just - agh, didn’t think before opening my mouth. Sorry, um..”

“You’re fine, April, I promise. Just wrongly assumed you’d judge.” some of that nervous energy fades away as Donnie considers her answer. “You’re pan?”

“Means I have an attraction to everybody regardless of gender,” she mutters, thinking he didn’t know the definition.

“I knew that!” he yelps, and she facepalms, hearing him laugh again. He’s quickly becoming more relaxed, even revealing more about himself. Maybe she’s made a friend! “I’m bi,” he shares quietly, making a small grin rise to her face. She likes this guy, and she hopes she’ll like his family, too.

“That’s awesome!” she says, still grinning. “So I’m gonna meet all of your siblings today, then?”

“Yeah, I really hope -

“Do you two have something you want to share with the class? If you hadn’t noticed, school’s already started.” Donnie’s sentence falls mid sentence and they both look forward, towards the man standing in front of the class. The other kids in the class were staring at the two of them but Donnie and April only have eyes for the adult in the room. He looks mad, _shit they were_ _totally in trouble_ -

“No, sir,” Donnie says, looking terrified, and April shakes her head rapidly. Huffing, he turns away from them and back towards the whiteboard, writing his name down neatly. Mr. Bradford. Donnie’s eyes are wide and flitting back from the board to the teacher, breathing quickly, and April doesn’t know why but she doesn’t this asshole at _all_.

But she suddenly realizes something else. That _wasn’t right!_ She glances down at her schedule and swallows at what she sees. Bradford shouldn’t _be here_! It says Miss. Grossland as their first hour teacher. What was going on? Was this a substitute teacher?

“I’m Mr. Bradford. Yes, some of you might recognize me as Chris Bradford, because of my past in ninjutsu. This is my first year of teaching and I expect the same level of respect as you give to teachers with more experience,” Bradford explains, voice low and gruff. This guy was obviously having a bad day, it was probably the best not to get an even higher ranking on his shitlist. April exchanges a glance with Donnie and realizes that the boy next to her looks unsettled... _scared_ , even. He obviously recognized their teacher. “Do you understand?”

The class gives their full agreement and attention, likely feeling the tension in the room that wasn’t there before.

When Bradford tells them to get out their notebooks to start with a warmup, April tears a piece out and writes a message to give to her new friend.

_you look terrified omg are u good?? :(_

He smiles slightly when he sees it, writing a response quickly and returning the paper.

_not really i’ll explain later, wait 4 me_

She sends him a nod when she’s finished reading and tries to pay attention to Bradford, but her thoughts keep sliding back to Donnie. What was going on with him, and what was with her schedule and their weird teacher?

-

Donnie, even though he promised to explain why he wasn’t feeling good as soon as class ended, takes her by the hand and basically drags her down the hallway outside to a courtyard she hadn’t seen yet. “Mikey!” Donnie shouts, and April feels the questions boiling in her mouth come to a halt for the time being. Donnie’s little brother waves goodbye to what looks to be a senior with burns all over his face and comes to meet them, all smiles.

Mikey’s as dark as Donnie is with a mop of dyed orangeish - yellowish curly hair bouncing precariously every which direction as he runs over. He’s wearing an orange tanktop with blue shorts and tennis shoes that he’s drawn on several times over. She had no idea how he hadn’t gotten dresscoded yet but she likes him already.

“Hey, Don! I have so much to tell you, you aren’t gonna _believe_ who’s here, I think our school’s getting infiltrated by Shred - hey! Who’s this?” Mikey comes to a complete stop as he realizes Donnie isn’t alone, looking at Donnie's companion with wide eyes.

“April, this is Mikey, my younger brother. Mikey, this is April, she’s new and what are you _talking_ about?” Donnie hisses. April has no idea what’s going on but she hopes someone would explain it to her soon - she hated being left out of the loop. 

“Hey April, nice to meet you!” he smiles, taking her extended hand and shaking it quickly, ignoring Donnie’s annoyed sigh in favor of beaming at April. He was as polite as Donnie but with a lot more energy - April grins as she returns his handshake with what she hopes is enough gusto.

“Likewise.”

“Anyway, um, not to be rude Ape but _Donnie can we trust her_?” he asks, returning his focus back to his taller brother. Donnie glances at April, sighs again, and nods. 

“She’s good people. Go on, what’d you find out?”

“Well, Leatherhead told me that the guys we fight were _here_ running the school! Stockman’s in the chemistry labs and I think I saw that, um, TigerClaw guy -

“His name is Takeshi, Mikey.”

“Whatever, TigerClaw sounds cooler. Anyway, I think that Shredder’s replacing the principal here this year too! Roseland is _gone_ , Dee, and she’s been the principal at this school for nearly twenty years!” Mikey sounds agitated, the smile completely disappearing from his face. Donnie ruffles Mikey's hair, most likely to calm him down.

“April and I have Bradford as a math teacher,” Donnie says urgently. “Do you have any classes with them?”

“I don’t know, Don!” Mikey sighs in exasperation, shaking Donnie's hand off his curls. “We’re just lucky they haven’t recognized us yet. Who knows what they're gonna do?” 

“We need to get Leo and Raph. Casey, Karai, and Shinigami, too. We’ll meet at lunch. What hour do we all have this year?”

“Well, um, Shinigami and Karai have 4th period lunch, and I think everyone else has 5th.” 

“Good, at least Karai won’t be alone. Splinter would kill us if we let anything happen to her after what Shredder did,” Donnie scratches the back of his neck anxiously.

“I’ll text her, fill her and Shini in,” Mikey promises. “I’ve gotta go to class. Sorry for dropping this all on you, April. Donnie will explain everything.”

“Hey, what?” Donnie yells at Mikey’s retreating back. “You’re so gonna get it, Mikey!”

“Whatever dude, see you later!” Mikey shouts over his shoulder and disappears back inside. 

“What the _hell_ is going on?” April says, confused and more than a little worried. These “teachers” sounded like bad news, and Donnie’s expression only got worse as he looked at her. 

“Come on, let’s go to class, I’ll explain on the way there.” 

April sighs, following behind her new friend. She had a feeling her life was about to get a lot more interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey :D i've always wanted to write a human au and this is just my take on it! if u wanna know the character's sexualities hold up ill list em! they're not very important in the story rn but they might be in the future
> 
> leo - confused, he doesn't have a label  
> mikey - pan, prefers males  
> donnie - also bi, doesn't prefer any  
> april - pan  
> casey - demi & bi  
> raph - no label  
> shinigami - lesbian  
> karai - bi, prefers females
> 
> all the characters are poc except april and casey, since i went by the 2012 versions (i have zero problems w april's 2018 model though and i do wholeheartedly think that it's important that she was originally designed as a poc)


	2. you'd be the love of my life when i was young

When April woke up that morning, she was looking forward to making new friends at her new school and just genuinely having a good year. Her first new friend, and all of his brothers, however, had decided that that was _not_ the way her school year was going to go. Not that it would be normal anyway, what with her past, but she could have at least pretended.

“You guys are _ninjas_?” she said that a lot louder than she should have, but they were walking down the crowded hall to their next class and no one was paying attention, so Donnie doesn’t make any movement to shush her. He nods, and she has a million questions that she wants to ask, but Donnie explains. 

“My adoptive father and his wife, Tang Shen, lived in Japan and were part of the Hamato Clan, a clan of ninjas, basically, and they had a daughter. Miwa.” Donnie starts, aware that April was hanging on to every word. “Splinter, er, _my dad_ , and his “brother”, the Shredder - principal of the school now - fought over Tang Shen since they were both infatuated with her. They fought to the death, their dojo caught on fire, and Shredder made it out relatively unharmed. He _stole_ Miwa and raised her for the next fifteen years. Meanwhile, Tang Shen and Splinter, who had also survived the fire, came to New York and adopted the four of us - me, Mikey, Raph, and Leo. And...raised us to be ninjas because he knew Shredder would one day be back for revenge.” 

“Oh my god,” April says, shocked out of her mind. They reached their second class, AP Psychology (their teacher was not one of Shredder’s goons thankfully, just a short fat guy with a temper and a receding hairline) and walked to the back of the class to continue their discussion in private. 

“It’s a lot to take in, I know,” Donnie said as they sat down. “We’ve fought Shredder and his servants - Bradford, Xever, Stockman - for years and got Miwa - who now goes by Karai, out of Shredder’s control, but that only made him angrier. He doesn’t know Tang Shen’s still alive, but when he figures it out…” Donnie sighs. “All Hell’s gonna break loose.”

“I don’t doubt it.” April agrees. “Don - Shredder, those people that are our teachers now - how did they get into a school? They’re _criminals_!”

“Maybe they took it by force, maybe they paid the government off, I have no clue,” Donnie titters anxiously. “But they know that we’re here. Me, my brothers, Karai - they _know_ that we go to school here, April. They haven’t recognized us yet, but they’re going to come for us. In the one place we thought we were safe.” 

“I’m so sorry,” April said, devastated for her new friend (and her new friends, she guessed, because she couldn’t wait to meet everyone else). “Seriously. This entire situation is so fucked up.”

“I put you in danger just by telling you about it,” he realizes, sighing audibly. “Too late now.”

“It’s fine, I don’t care. I want to help,” April shrugs that off. “I’ve been in trouble in the past too. Me and my Dad, we - 

She shuts herself up instantly, wondering if he’d care, wondering if she should tell him at all. But his attention was already grabbed, and for his credit he really _does_ look concerned, reaches for her hand. “What do you mean, April? What trouble?”

“We were...experimented on,” she decides to tell him, hoping that she could trust him the same way he’d trusted her. She barely knew him, but hearing his outlandish story gave her that extra push in hoping that she wouldn’t get treated like she was insane. “Well, me and my grandparents - my parents, yeah. They were experimented on by these...well, they called themselves scientists. I don’t know what to call them, but their company was called Kraang. Probably an abbreviation for something, I don’t know. Anyway, they took my mother away. We always hoped she’d come back eventually but she...never did. So we moved to New York to try and start over. It’s...crazy, but I think they’re still after me.”

Donnie takes this all in, tapping his pencil on the desk. “Why are they after you?” is his only question, and she _knows_ he must be shocked by what she’s telling him but he doesn’t show it. Maybe he's heard worse from others. Maybe he's just numb at this point.

“From what my Dad told me, I have something that they need. Something my mom passed down to me. They haven’t tried to take me yet in this city, but I know I’m not safe. Dad thinks we can start over here, but...it’s hopeless,” she confesses. 

“We know about the Kraang, too.” Donnie reveals. “We’ve even fought a couple of them. They’re all so stupid, and they all speak the same too, just a bunch of redundant sentences. Raph figures they’re robots.” 

“Funny,” April says weakly. “how connected we all really are.”

“Hey now, we’ll figure it out,” Donnie reassures her, squeezing her hand. “For the record, I’m glad I met you. It’s the first thing that’s gone right all day. We need to stick together.”

“Yeah, okay,” April agrees with a small smile. “Thanks, Don.” 

“No problem, Ape,” he grins. 

-

Their next two hours go fine, AP Junior English and AP Environmental Biology are free of Shredder’s presence and Donnie and April quickly bond over their mutual love of studying. They even team up as lab partners for Biology and walk out afterwards talking animatedly about their classes as they walk towards the cafeteria. Their dilemma never strays far from their minds, and hits back full center as they approach the others.

Raph and Leo are taller than Mikey, with Raph having broader shoulders and a mostly shaved head with a mop of brown hair (and a red streak, April wonders if he and Don did it to match) and the first thing he does is raise his eyebrows suspiciously as he spots April with Donnie. Leo is a bit taller than Raph but shorter than Donnie, blue and brown dreads tied back in a ponytail. They’re both athletic and poised for action - April knows instantly that they’re the most competitive out out of the four. Mikey’s talking animatedly to the two of them but neither are listening as Donnie and April finally come to a stop in front of them. April feels that nervousness in the pit of her stomach again, but Donnie has no time for pleasantries and introduces them quickly. “Guys, this is April. April, that’s Leo, that’s Raph, and I have no fucking clue where Casey is.”

“He’ll be here in five, the stupid idiot texted me,” Raph said, not taking his gaze off April. 

Donnie seems to get the issue immediately and explains. “She’s cool, I met her in first period and told her everything.”

“You did _what_?” Raph squawks angrily. Donnie winces, but April jumps in.

“Listen, I - know about Shredder, and everything. And I know what you guys are - ninjas, I mean. And that’s cool and...um, well, not _cool_ , but I heard from Donnie that you guys have fought the Kraang, and I need to know what’s going on with them. Please, my life - it depends on it.” April says this all very quickly and nervously, rubbing her freckled arms anxiously. 

“You - you know about the Kraang?” Leo asks.

“And what do you mean your life depends on it?” Raph asks, looking confused but not nearly as hostile.

April tells them everything she’s told Donnie. The four brothers are paying close attention to her, even Mikey, who’s tossing an orange ball back and forth between his hands. When she’s done they exchange glances, and Donnie sighs, looking at his three brothers. “She’s smart, reliable, and trustworthy. She knows what we’re up against. I wouldn’t have brought her here if she wasn’t.” 

“You’re right, Don. I was a bit too quick to judge,” Raph juts a hand out quickly, averting his eyes and suddenly sporting an expression that didn't look like it belonged on his face. “It’s nice to meet ya, April. Sorry about the hostility, it’s a...jus’ hard to trust people when -

“You’re in the middle of a war, I get it. No hard feelings,” she replies easily, some of that previous anxiety melting away as she takes his hand. Raph smiles as their hands shake. 

“Glad we understand each other.”

“I’m so glad we finally made another friend!” Mikey grins, jumping around. “It’s been ages, dudes!”

“Mikey, calm down before you scare her away!” Leo ruffles his younger brother’s hair, reaching out to shake April’s hand last. They all sit down, April between Mikey and Donnie, and finally feels like she’s in a friendly environment after all the shocks she’s been through earlier today. She’s going to be friends with these people, and she’s so happy that she’s not alone with her father anymore.

“Casey Jones is finally here! What’s happenin, fellas!”...and there goes that comfortable silence. April looks up at the new face and feels her heart drop for the umpteenth time that day. Casey’s not the porcelain white like she is, he’s a bit tanner, but he’s as attractive as Donnie, even if he looked like he just crawled out of bed and went to school that way. He had short, messy black hair with unruly clothes and hockey sticks hung over his shoulder with his backpack.

April feels her mouth fall open and then quickly closes it before anyone could see. This day was just getting better and better.

“Casey, we told you to _stop_ referring to yourself in third person,” Donnie groans, and Casey chuckles, giving Raph a high five and Mikey a fist bump before giving Leo a slap on the shoulder. He reaches around to give Donnie a kiss, then finally stops and stares down at April. 

“Who’s this?” he grins cockily. April sighs, but her stomach clenches nervously. 

“April,” she reaches out a hand to him, just because it was the polite thing to do, and then shrieks as Casey, instead of taking her hand, _kisses_ the back of it. Donnie rolls his eyes but doesn’t have a single complaint over what Casey did, just looks at April to see her reaction. April swallows as she forces herself to roll her eyes, schooling her expression into something neutral so they wouldn't see her blush. _Why isn’t he mad about his boyfriend kissing my hand…?_

“Casey, Casey Jones,” he says, and April sighs.

“Yes, I know.”

The others laugh and Casey sheepishly sits down on April’s other side, smirking impishly at Mikey before pulling his lunch out of his bag. “So the school’s being taken over by our biggest enemy, anyone wanna talk about that?” Casey asks, but he doesn’t really ask since his face is stuffed with sandwich.

Leo rolls his eyes but apparently gets the general gist of what he said, and the mood at the table gets a bit more serious. “Casey’s - er, right. We need to talk about what we’re going to do.”

“Are we going to fight them?” Mikey asks, picking his nails. 

“No, Mikey, we can’t fight them. Not in the middle of school, not in public.” Leo explains. “We need to make sure no one goes alone anywhere, in case one of them suddenly recognizes us and tries to do something. That’ll work until tonight. Maybe Splinter can figure out a better plan.”

“April, uh, how do you get home from school?” Leo turns their attention to her, and April thinks of her Dad, thinks of the Kraang. 

“I - my Dad picks me up. By car.”

“Can you come over tonight?” Leo asks. “I think Splinter would really want to meet you.”

“I’d have to ask, but I’m sure it would be okay,” she says, pulling her phone out of her pocket. “I’ll um - call him?”

“Go ahead,” Leo smiles. “Can we see your schedule first, though? Actually - that goes to all of you, get your schedules out so we can figure out this buddy system.” 

April grabs her schedule out of her bag, hands it Leo, and then stands up and walks a couple paces away from the table, dialing her father’s number and praying he’s not in one of his anxious moods. The call goes through and her father’s quiet voice is on the line, asking if she’s okay.

“Dad, hey, I’m fine. Really fine, actually, I made some new friends!” she says, putting false enthusiasm in her voice so she didn’t betray how nervous and jittery she actually felt with what was going on in their lives. “I’m going to meet the parents, is that okay?”

“April, it’s - please, you know how I feel about how everything that’s happening to us, and how you have to get to know people to trust them, and how - and, April, we don’t even _know_ New York yet, this isn’t the farmhouse, we don’t know how safe we are yet, and -

“Dad, I know,” she mumbles, heart breaking as she realized how much stress he had on his shoulders. “I’ll be safe! I promise, and I’ll get you the address and a time to come pick me up. Please, Dad, these people, they...mean a lot to me. And I want to let them in. I think I need it.” 

“Fine, but you text me if _anything_ happens, anything at all.” he says sternly through the line, causing her to wince. But she understood. It was for her safety.

“Of course. I love you, Dad.”

“I love you back, April," his voice takes on a softer tone and April swallows the lump in her throat.

The call disconnects, and she realizes that tears are building up behind her eyes. She blinks them away, burying her face in her hands for a second as she takes a deep breath to calm herself down. She looks back and sees that they’re watching her nervously, so she goes back, takes her seat between Donnie and Casey, and exhales. “He said I could come.”

Mikey whoops and the rest of them grin. “Good,” Leo says. “Let’s get started.”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i think that they downplayed kirby's emotions in the show and i feel so bad for him :/ the stress that man must have after nearly losing his entire family and being mutated twice...god i could never deal
> 
> YES it's eventual capritello i adore them to death but i want things to progress naturally so...yeah waiting it is :( 
> 
> tang shen is alive! and april is coming to the house!#?$@#!$ nervous as hell i have no idea how any of this is going to pan out HELP
> 
> more coming soon LKASJDAJDLA i should probably update the tags....eh it can wait


	3. when the night is over

“Okay, so,” Leo says, spreading their schedules out and pointing to each of them while he explains. “Casey, Mikey, and April - you have Art together next period, and April has cross country with Raph and I after that. April _should_ be safe because they don’t know we know her, but I don’t wanna take any chances. Donnie, you’re alone in Robotics for 5th period, but my class is right across the hallway so we should be good…and you join Mikey and Casey for boys' gym after that, perfect. Okay, now Raph... _shit_ , Raph, we have an issue.”

“What is it?” Raph asks, taking his eyes off the schedule he was studying. 

“You have chemistry 5th period.”

April remembers what Mikey said earlier. “Stockman. He’s the teacher,” she says, and they nervously exchange glances. “From what Donnie told me...he’s their scientist, right?”

“Right,” Leo confirms. “And if he recognizes Raph...”

“It’s just Stockman, what’s the issue?” Casey rolls his eyes, still talking with his mouth full. Raph motions for Mikey to hit him upside the head and Mikey gladly does so, much to Casey’s indignation. “ _What_? We can take him!”

“Of _course_ we can take him, if it was nighttime and we had our weapons, _and_ we weren’t in public.” Leo hisses. “Don’t you remember what he did to Karai? We barely got her back because of all the shit he did to her mentally. Stockman almost ruined her for good.”

Casey shakes his head, slamming his hands down on the table. “Whatever, man. If one of them recognizes me, I don’t _care_ if it’s the middle of the day. I’m not letting them hurt us. Not in the one place we were supposed to be safe.” 

“If one of them comes up to you and tries anything, you have permission to do whatever you need to do to protect yourself,” Leo amends, stealing one of Raph’s fries as he stared around at all of them, meeting everyone’s gaze one by one. “But _only_ if they make the first move." Casey grudgingly nods. "We meet up at the track. Cool?” 

They all agree and when the bell rings a couple minutes later April feels a lot better. They had a plan, loose and unorganized as it was, so April doesn't mind going separate ways from the rest, at least for a few hours. They’d be okay. 

“Be...careful, okay?” Donnie asks, speaking in that low, nervous voice he’d had when they first met. Even though she’d met him only a couple hours before, she steps forward and hugs him. He relaxes against her almost immediately and hugs back. She feels _safe_ with him, she can't really explain it but she just _does._

“You too, Don,” she whispers back. Casey kisses him afterwards, and then Donnie buries his head into Casey’s shoulder - trying to get his bearings, probably. When they pull away, Casey walks back over to April and Mikey and they all finally separate. Donnie and Leo walking down out of one exit, Casey, Mikey, and April going another, and Raph going alone. 

Casey hip checks her and ruffles Mikey’s hair as they walk. “Chin up, dudes, two hours left until we can go home,” he grins at the two of them excitedly.

“You mean _my_ home, Casey,” Mikey says with a pout.

“Not like it matters, I’ve crashed in your living room more times than I can remember,” Casey laughs, twirling around and skipping ahead a couple paces so he could walk backwards while still continuing the conversation. Mikey giggles.

“Good point, I’m pretty sure Splinter and Tang Shen consider you family at this point. They’ll probably love you too, April - hey, Ape? You good?” Mikey waves his hand in front of April’s face, and she blinks a couple of times. 

“Oh yeah, I’m...fine. Just thinking.”

“About?” Mikey asks with a worried expression, stepping a bit closer to her. He’s around the same height as she is (which makes them both shorter than all the other boys) but that doesn’t stop him from putting an arm around her. She notices how the brothers - and Casey, too, don’t hesitate with physical affection, even though she’s a newcomer. It makes her happy for some odd reason. It wasn't like her Dad didn't hug her, but...it was different. They were new - they were _friends_.

“Everything - and, um...it’s fine, I just...it’s a lot to take in. I’ll be okay, though! It - _Casey_!” She reaches out and snatches Casey’s arm and pulls him back before he bumps into the man crossing the hallway. Casey spins immediately to look at the man he’d almost bumped into, who was continuing on like he hadn’t heard them, talking urgently into his phone. Casey and Mikey don’t recognize him, but April _does_ , and that false sense of security she had had since lunch had washed away, replaced by complete disbelief and _fear._ She was scared. She was dumb to think that she’d gotten over that fear. That she’d _ever_ get over that fear. _He was here._

She stared at the tall man in the black business suit and the rumbling voice as he whipped around the corner and kept _staring_ , wondering if he was just a figment of her imagination. She never thought she’d see him ever again. 

“...April? You good? Thanks for the save, but that’s not one of Shredder’s minions. He looks important, though.” Casey's staring down the hallway too as he talks, but his voice is like static. She was still gripping Casey’s arm, and grasps it tighter, her breaths getting slower and deeper like she was in a trance. They’re standing in the middle of the hallway, stock still, while hundreds of kids pass around them, and the situation dawns on her a bit more and April wishes she was anyone else. Maybe she could sink into the floor and die, that would be good. _He was here._

“...April?” Mikey’s voice, sounding a bit more concerned. April shakes her head, still feeling lightheaded, and nearly falls over. Only Mikey’s hold on her keeps her upright, and she presses her free hand to her head and exhales. She could do it, come on, _breathe_.

“I’m - I’m fine, sorry,” she says. “Let’s just get to class.”

“Are you sure, Red?” Casey steps closer, inches away. “You don’t look - 

“I’m _fine_ ,” she repeats harshly, quickly, because he could be back any second. “I’ll explain later.” When neither of them move, she sighs. “ _Promise_.”

The boys shot worried glances at each other but ultimately realized that they wouldn’t get more information in the hallway, so they made the rest of the trip to their art class, Mikey’s arm slipping from her shoulders as they entered but never straying far. Casey and April take a table near the back and Mikey takes the table directly in front of them, turning his chair around and glaring at the only girl in their little group. “Spill.” 

April closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and explains. Her heart beat extraordinarily fast. “I _knew_ that guy in the hallway. I’ve seen him before, back when I was almost - when my Dad and I were followed last year, before we moved here,” her voice quickens and rises in volume and pitch as she remembers how close Casey had come to bumping into him. “They’d call him Kraang Prime. I think he’s their president, and he almost - he almost _saw me_ \- 

The panic comes back before she can get a grip on it and she grabs her face, squeezing her eyes shut as she tries and fails to ground herself. If he looked up from his phone he would have recognized her instantly, and...and done what? Attacked? Gone after her and then her father? Why was he even here - did he know April and her father moved - _of course_ he and the rest of them knew. They fucking knew. They were probably watching the farmhouse.

They knew they had moved, probably followed her here...her Dad was unprotected - what the hell was she _doing_ , sitting in a classroom of all fucking places, their lives were in danger - 

“Red, breathe with me, take deep breaths, in and out, it’s okay, we aren’t going to let anything happen to you,” Casey rubs her hunched back as she buries her head in her arms, relishing in the darkness and letting Casey’s words wash over her like a wave. How could he say something like that? Her biggest fear was in this school, had been less than a foot away from her and she was still - 

“Is she okay?” a woman’s voice asks, probably their teacher, and April clenches her teeth to avoid letting out a choked sob as she remembers she’s having a panic attack in fucking _school_. In a room full of kids and a teacher who were probably looking at her like she was insane. She definitely can’t answer, but the boys don’t wait a beat.

“She’s had a long day,” Mikey says carefully, and Casey’s hand doesn’t even slow from its movement on April’s back. “She’ll be fine.” 

“Take all the time you need,” their teacher says, and the heels clicking as she walks away is any indicator that she was even there at all. After about five minutes April raises her head from her folded arms and blinks in confusion at the darkness. The projector is on, displaying a presentation about school guidelines, and the teacher - an older woman - is pointing at the rules and expectations and explaining what they meant. Typical first day stuff. No one’s really paying attention, either. A lot of the kids were on their phones, talking in whispers to each other - not looking at her. April blinks away some of the excess tears and takes a ragged breath. Breakdown over. 

“Are you okay?” Mikey and Casey don’t waste any time asking, and April gives them both a teary smile.

“Sorry,” she says instead of answering their question. “Didn’t mean to freak out on you.”

“Don’t apologize,” Casey squeezes her shoulder. “Especially over something as serious as this. We’re here for you, April. _Let_ us be here for you.” Mikey nods furiously and April sighs, letting the smile drop back into its miserable position. “How do you feel?” 

“Exhausted, and really scared,” April tries, hoping her voice doesn’t crack. “Prime wouldn’t be here unless he knew that I was here, or - 

“Or...guys, what if he and Shredder are allies?” Mikey interrupts, eyebrows scrunched. Noticing Casey and April’s shocked expressions as they thought it over, Mikey pulls his phone out. "We need to tell Leo. Give me your Instagram, April,” Mikey makes a 'give-me' gesture. April does as he says, perplexed to what her Instagram has to do with what they’re talking about, but when she gets about a billion buzzes from the phone in her pocket she suddenly understands.

She pulls her phone out and after turning the brightness down, accepts Mikey’s request into the new group chat she’s been added into. She goes into the settings and follows all of the people she saw - the four brothers, Casey, and Karai. She immediately gets follows back, but she doesn't bother to check any of that and reads the discussion.

_mikeylangelo added apriloneil to bae city!_

She smiles despite the gloomy atmosphere. Bae city?

_mikeylangelo: leooo_

_mikeylangelo: leo come on i know ur active_

_fearlessleader: mikey what the hell its class time pay attention_

_fearlessleader: be careful too raph’s ringer might be on he doesn’t need any attention from stockman_

_fearlessleader: hi april_

_apriloneil: hey leo_

_ca3eyjones: leo this is serious_

_fearlessleader: did something happen?? are you all okay_

_mikeylangelo: april recognized one of the people in the school_

_mikeylangelo: she calls him kraang prime_

_donnatello: april are you okay_

April huffs. 

_apriloneil: im fine_

_fearlessleader: that doesn’t sound very convincing april are you sure_

_ca3eyjones: idk about OKAY but she's safe_

_mikeylangelo: ^^_

_ca3eyjones: mikey thinks he & shredder might be allies _

_fearless leader: shit_

_apriloneil: it’s my fault_

_apriloneil: they’re probably here because of me_

_apriloneil: im sorry_

_ca3eyjones: APRIL_

_mikeylangelo: stop saying sorry im going to smack u_

_donnnatello: it is NOT your fault. not at all_

_fearlessleader: april. are you okay?_

_c3seyjones: im sorry april please don’t kill me_

_apriloneil: what_

_c3seyjones: leo she. had a panic attack_

Casey scrunches in his seat as April raises her eyes from the phone to glare at him. Furious, April types back a response.

_apriloneil: CASEY JONES_

_apriloneil: i fucking hate you_

_apriloneil: don’t fucking TELL them that. what the hell is your problem?_

_c3seyjones: you obviously aren’t okay. im not gonna lie on your behalf red_

_c3seyjones: plus they were going to figure it out sooner or later they're smart like that_

_apriloneil: still._

_fearlessleader: april please don’t hide things from us_

_fearlessleader: answer honestly, are you okay?_

_apriloneil: fuck it._

_apriloneil: no. i’m not okay. i probably put you guys more at risk just for coming to this school. my dad’s at home, alone, a mess, at risk, and i don’t know what to do at all_

_apriloneil: im terrified_

_apriloneil: prime is here, at this school, and IF he finds me he’s going to_

_apriloneil: maybe i should just let him take me and get it over with lol_

_mikeylangelo: no. ape_

_fearlessleader: don’t say that_

_c3seyjones: we’d never let that happen_

_donnnatello: we’re going to figure it out_

_donnnatello: together_

_apriloneil: how?? its terrifying_

_apriloneil: we shouldn’t be having to deal with this we’re kids_

_mikeylangelo: ur right babe_

_mikeylangelo: but listen ur stuck w us now and u heard everyone else we aren’t letting shit happen to u_

_mikeylangelo: u joined the hamato fam ur stuck w us asf_

_fearlessleader: mikey please_

_fearlessleader: we’ll talk more in twenty minutes when the bell rings! april, are you feeling a bit better?_

_fearless leader: stupid question i know but_

_apriloneil: ill be okay. sorry again lol_

_c3seyjones: stop. apologizing_

_apriloneil: sorr_

_apriloneil: LSDJKAFD_

April glances up from her phone to see Mikey and Casey both hiding laughter behind their hands, and she smiles, some of the earlier anger at Casey washing away as his cheeks turn red. Maybe she was being hunted, maybe she was going to get captured, maybe she _was_ going to die. But she had made a group of friends that she’d already move the moon for. She had to take her blessings where she could, even if they were little.

The darkness made her eyes droop a bit, and she struggled to stay awake the remainder of the class period. When the bell rings she stands up, nods when her art teacher asks in a lowered voice if she’s okay, and joins Mikey and Casey as they head out of the classroom. April swallows thickly as she glances around the hallway, looking for Kraang Prime but relieved beyond belief when she just sees the familiar sea of students walking by. She was safe for now.

Leo, Donnie, and Raph eventually join them as they wait over by the doors that lead towards the boys gym, and they all look at April with concern but she waves them off, making it obvious that she didn’t want to talk about it. They accept that without argument, but still shoot glances at her when they thought she wasn't looking. It makes her feel better, as weird as it sounded. Donnie scrutinizes her a bit closer than the rest but eventually links his pinky with Casey (who’s _also_ looking closely at her, huh. Funny) and joins Mikey outside after they’ve all reaffirmed the plan and where they were going to meet. Leo, Raph, and April walk the opposite direction towards the track. Last hour of the day, and this was the one she was looking the most forward too.

“So, uh. Ya like to run?” Raph asks, looking curious, and April nods, letting a smile adorn her features as she indulges in the conversation. 

“I’ve liked to run, not just because of the Kraang but because it’s fun, you know. It’s easy to get lost in your thoughts.”

“Are you fast?” Leo shoots her a mischievous grin, something she wasn’t expecting the oldest to do. That kind of grin belonged on his youngest brother’s face...but she supposed Leo could be cocky when it came to this. Donnie _did_ imply that Leo and Raph were the most competitive out of the four. 

“I guess we’ll find out,” April smirked back. The fresh air does wonders to April’s mood, lifting it drastically. Like she could run miles, maybe even outrun her problems. When they get to the track, they meet their new coach - a slim, tan, athletic looking woman with short cropped hair and a beam. She’s all smiles as she introduces herself.

“I’m Miss. Levanthrop, but that’s hard to pronounce half the time so you can call me Emily, I don’t care much! I’ll be your coach for this semester,” she claps her hands together and grins up at Leo, who towered over her by almost a foot. “Leo, right?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Leo beams back. He really was such a sweetheart, him and Raph both. April huffs fondly as Levanthrop - _Emily_ leads them over to the boys section of the annex, a building that they used to store equipment for all the sports seasons but also had a little changing out area. She comes back to show April to her side of the annex, and lets her go in alone to change. There’s probably a dozen girls in there, either changing or standing around and talking. April joins them without missing a beat, pulling on her workout leggings and throwing a tank top on over her sports bra before taking her long hair out of her ponytail. She stuffs her school clothes into her backpack and slings it over her shoulder, walking back outside and dropping it where she could easily grab it. She walks back over to Leo and Raph, who were engaged in a conversation. They stop when she walks up.

“Your hair - it’s so long,” Leo gasps, reaching out to touch it before he can stop himself. He’s right, of course; she’s let it grow past her shoulders and down to her waist. She doesn’t know why she’s let it happen, but she’s never really considered a haircut. It suits her, more than the buzzcut or the shoulder length hair she used to have.

“Hold this,” she passes Leo her scrunchie, and grabs all of her hair before twisting it expertly into a bun. Leo passes the scrunchie back and April secures it to the top of her hair, finally ready for their workout. She’s excited, she hasn’t gotten to actually run in what feels like forever. Emily goes over the basics when everyone's finally outside - how to do warmups (they finish those quickly) how long their workouts usually are (30 - 45 minutes) and how to pace themselves. Season started in a month, so they had plenty of time to get themselves comfortable in stride and time. For today, Emily wanted them to go around the track for as long as they could at a steady pace. April grins at the two oldest brothers and joins them as they slowly do a few laps around the track.

“God, it’s so hot out here! I hate the heat,” Leo says after about ten minutes of silence. They had done a mile already at that slow pace and April itched to go a bit faster, but she didn’t want to blow her legs out so quickly. She still had to make the walk home, and she knew from personal experience how sore her legs got after she didn’t run for awhile. 

“When it gets colder you’re gonna be eating your words, big bro,” Raph grunts and April laughs softly. “Tired yet, April?” Raph turns his attention to her, and April shakes her head immediately, more than a bit insulted. “Wanna speed it up a bit?” 

“Hey, what -” Leo protests, but April had already nodded and turned up the slow jogging to full out jogging. Leo groans but is definitely not willing to get left behind. They do a couple more laps before Emily beckons them over. April rolls her eyes but does what she says, slowing to a walk. She was probably going to tell them to slow down and conserve their energy but all April wanted to do was keep going. 

“You guys are quick!” Emily compliments enthusiastically. “What are you guys - juniors, seniors?”

“We’re all juniors,” Raph says, handing April a towel. She hadn’t realized she was sweating and thanked him, pressing the towel to her forehead. She passes it to Leo afterwards, who twitches his nose at the sweat already on there but doesn’t mind much apparently, wiping his entire face. “Ape, how many laps did we do?”

“Lost count at around ten,” she replies cheekily. “Didn’t think you’d keep up during the end there, Raph.” 

“Hey, is that a challenge?” he narrows his eyes playfully, catching the towel from Leo. “If you want we could go back out there and -”

“No, no, that’s enough for today,” Leo interjects quickly. Raph and April laugh.

“Make sure to stretch out properly and drink enough water,” Emily says and leaves them to it, watching the other runners and eventually calling them over to end the workout. It was nearing the end of the last hour, from Raph’s watch he reckoned they had maybe three minutes left. They stretch out together, teasing and poking fun before going to grab their backpacks. 

“That was fun,” Leo grins as they walk over to stand on the track, hearing the bell ring in the distance. April nods distractedly, standing on her tiptoes to see if she could spot Donnie, Casey, and Mikey. “My legs are already sore, though.” Leo continues, complaining. “Guess I have a lot to get used to.” 

“Aw, don’t sweat it, bro.” Raph grins at him. “Sides’, you managed to keep up with April and l. You’re a beast,” he tells April, and she smirks at him. 

“I am, aren’t I?”

“Don’t let it get to your head, just wait until we start sprinting,” he promises, but his attention is grabbed by two girls, running hand in hand towards them. One of them had short, cropped hair with a dyed blonde undershave and expertly applied eyeliner, while the other had longer, silky black hair. Both were dressed in black. “Aw, shit, it’s Karai and Shini. Totally forgot they were walkin' home with us today.” 

April recognized Karai’s name from Donnie’s explanation of her earlier, but her mind drew a blank on the other girl. “Shini?” 

“Karai’s girlfriend. She's the one with the long hair. You’ll meet em’ in a second - and don’t mind the attitude, Karai dishes but she’s not really all that bad. Grew up with Shredder.”

“Yeah, Donnie told me,” April sighs. She lets her hair down out of the bun (it was getting itchy) and slides the scrunchie around her wrist. The two reach them, panting slightly, and Karai immediately focuses on April before the boys, eyeing her up and down silently. Raph and Leo watch with bated breath. April shuffles her feet nervously, wondering if she was supposed to do something. Karai looked like a stereotype goth and intimidating as all hell. 

“April, right? My brothers told me about you.” Karai juts her hip out to the side and grins at her. Wow, she was _not_ expecting that. The boys had told them about her?

“Yep, that’s me,” April returns the grin, feeling a batch of warmth spread up from the pit of her stomach at being recognized by name. She likes this girl. Leo’s mouth drops and Karai glances at him. She sighs, rolling her eyes impatiently.

“I can be diplomatic, Leo. I’m not a dick.”

“Debatable,” Raph mutters. Karai immediately stalks over to him and punches him in the shoulder.

“I’m warning you, Raphael - take that _back_ , you big asshole - 

“Oi, Karai, don’t mess with me today, I justfinished a workout and I could still totally take you down -

Shinigami rolls her eyes at her girlfriend and Raph and finally smiles at April. Her voice was light and feathery and gave April butterflies. “Shinigami. People call me Shini. Welcome to the family, April.”

“It’s been a day,” April sighs, wringing her hands out a couple times, “but I’m glad to be here.”

“AYO! Homies in the house! What’s good, peeps?” another energetic yell, and everyone turns to look at the newcomers. Mikey, Casey, and Donnie walk up, and April feels another shock at seeing all of these people together. Knowing that she had an uncertain future, it was weird to see all of them immediately give her a place in their little family. Like she belonged. She feels affection, maybe for all of them. It was nice. 

“Wow, April. Your hair!” Mikey immediately makes grabby hands at the redhead, so April sighs and resigns to her fate (she doesn't really mind, but it's funny to pretend). “It’s so - 

“Long? Yeah, I know,” April laughs. “Leo said the same thing.” 

Donnie and Casey stand over by her, too, and she shouldn’t feel weird about that but she _does_. Then she has to wonder why she feels weird about that - eh, a topic to think about later. “You good, Red?” Casey asks, reaching for her hand. April lets him take it, remembering her iron grip on his arm like it was seconds ago instead of a few hours. She remembers the panic, remembers her breakdown, but seeing all of them together, being invited to come home with them...she lets that anxiety rush out. It was okay, at least for a few hours. She was safe.

“I’m good,” she promises. Donnie scrutinizes her but doesn’t say anything, just hugs her after a minute. Casey joins that hug a couple seconds later, and when they pull away April feels more grounded than she’s had all day, even after the run she's gone on with Leo and Raph. 

“We’re good to go? Everyone accounted for? Let's get out of here before something bad happens!” Leo has to yell to get everyone’s attention, but they're off after a couple seconds, leaving out the gate with the sea of other students and _finally_ getting off of school property. They’re going to the Hamato house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)


	4. say the word your wish is my command

The Hamato’s live _far_ away. April walks behind Leo and Raph and in front of Casey and Donnie - Mikey runs up ahead while Shinigami and Karai take up the back. She’s content to walk silently and listen to everyone else talk - taking in the towering buildings and the strange smells and noises and the abandoned alleyways. It was cloudy now, and the wind started to pick up, but no one really paid any mind to it as they walked. Casey doesn’t stop fiddling with her hair and she considers telling him to stop, but it did feel soothing. Donnie reaches out to touch her shoulder after a while, asking if she was good. She nods, though she feels anything but. “I’m just...nervous,” she confesses. “What if they don’t like me?”

“They’ll love you. Splinter is the kindest man I know, he’s helped hundreds of people in this city _alone_ from Shredder. He adopted us, let’s _this_ idiot,” Donnie jabs Casey in the ribs (who squawks in indignation), “stay over when his Dad is being a bit too much - hell, Case practically lived with us half of last year. Tang Shen is caring - she’s strict when she's pissed, but she’s there for you when you need it. She got Karai on her feet again, they both did. You have nothing to worry about, Aprill.” 

“I…” April’s saved from answering when the sky rumbles loudly. She glances up at the sky (when did it get so overcast? Wasn’t Leo complaining about the heat only a hour ago?) and shivers as the first few drops hit her. She was still wearing her workout clothes, and they did nothing to protect her from the wind. She hoped their apartment was warm.

“Okay, let’s run, we’re almost there,” Leo has to shout to get his voice heard as the rain begins to fall faster. They do as Leo instructed, passing through a small abandoned park and stopping under a ramada as it begins to pour down. “The apartment is right there,” Leo points across the street for April’s benefit. It wasn’t really an _apartment_ \- looked more like a skyscraper. She had to tilt her head back to see the entire building, wondering what floor they live on. Closer to the ground, so they could escape if someone attacked? 

Leo seems to read her mind and answers her question. “We live at the top, not the bottom. Tang Shen loves the view and Splinter likes that he can see the entire city from the top, making it easier to plan and...see our enemies coming,” he explains, laughing a little. “It's...well, you’re gonna have to see the place first.”

“Let’s go!” Mikey jumps around impatiently. “Crauss gave me, like, ten million assignments, and Tang isn’t gonna let me play videogames if I don’t finish them and -

“Alright already, we get it,” Raph slaps Mikey’s shoulder and takes off across the street. “Come and get me, loser!”

“You’re so on, Raph!” Mikey doesn’t even hesitate before following, but April yells and leaps forward, pushing Leo out of the way. She grabbed Mikey’s arm and pulled him backwards before he could step foot in the street. The car passes by seconds later, splashing water everywhere (including her shoes, fantastic) but April focuses on the trembling boy who had nearly gotten himself hit. “Thank you,” Mikey says quietly, throwing his arms around her and getting his fingers tangled in her already sopping wet hair. It’s silent for only a second after he pulls away and then Leo’s there, yelling at him about how he has to look both ways before crossing the road (and then yelling across the street at Raph for being so reckless and _really, Raph, running in a storm?_ ) but April knows he’s just worried and grateful something worse hadn’t happened. 

They get inside the lobby before Leo starts really tearing into both Mikey and Raph, ignoring the receptionist who suddenly looked like she was wishing to be anywhere but right there. April tunes that conversation out, staring idly at the rainstorm outside. It was gorgeous, she hoped it continued all night.

“You - that was so close,” Donnie says as he looks out the window with her. “How did you -

“Reflexes, I guess,” April’s really shivering now, wrapping her arms around herself. She’d have to change back into her regular clothes, assuming they weren’t soaked. “I’m just glad he didn’t get hit,” she would have never forgiven herself if he had.

“You’re an idiot, Mikey, and so lucky April saw the car in time - 

\- yeah, well, I’m fine now, so stop talking about it! I didn’t see it, it was an accident!” Mikey got into Leo’s face, which would have been funny at any other time because of their height difference.

“Guys, stop fighting over it, it’s over. Let’s just be glad everyone’s safe and get upstairs. I’m cold as fuck,” Karai stalks in between Leo and Mikey, forcing them to back away from each other and let her through to the elevator. April obediently followed the rest as they shuffled forward, watching Karai jam the up button half a dozen times before the doors opened. 

They go up to the 47th floor, only three floors from the top, and go down the little hallway to the Hamato’s door. Leo unlocks it in seconds, opening it and letting them all in before him. The place looked more like a penthouse than an apartment, the windows fell from the ceiling to the floor and stretched out around the far side. Leo was right, you could see the entire city from up here, including the ocean. Couches were pressed up against the strong glass and Mikey immediately jumped on one of them, leaning against the window and looking down at the streets far below. There’s old retro games - pinball and pac-man against the far wall.

The kitchen is small but comfy, with an island, but there was no dining room table. They probably just ate on the sofas, then. The hallway leads to a multitude of rooms - a lab, dojo, bathroom, and three bedrooms. One for Karai, one for the boys, and one for Tang Shen and Splinter. It wasn’t a mansion, but for a family this big, they made it work. There were even a couple sleeping bags in the living room, probably for Casey or Shinigami or anyone else that regularly stayed the night. It felt like _home._ April never wanted to leave. 

“Hello, my children,” a new voice says, loud and full and taking up the entire room. April turns to see a tall man with a serene expression on his old weathered face as he welcomes them home. Five teens regularly, plus April, Casey, and Shinigami - the place should have been crowded. But everyone murmured hello’s back and spread out; Raph and Casey to the arcade games, Donnie heading into the lab to grab a few things, Shini and Karai heading into the kitchen, and Leo - staying right by April, who still hasn’t moved an inch. “This must be the girl you’ve told me about earlier, Leonardo. April O’Neil, it’s nice to meet you,” the man bows, and April bows too, even if she wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do.

“It’s nice to meet you too, erm - 

“Splinter, Miss. O’Neil. Come, we have much to discuss,” Splinter leads the redhead away from the living room and down the hallway. She glances back at Leo (who’s waving and mouthing ‘good luck’ very enthusiastically at her) and follows the older man into the dojo. There’s someone already in there - a woman - and April tenses, but Splinter whispers something to her and she smiles comfortingly up at the redhead. This must be Tang Shen, the boys’ adoptive mother.

“We’ve heard much about you, April. Leonardo doesn’t hold back any details,” she chuckles, and April relaxes. “Please sit.”

She sits, cross-legged, in front of Tang Shen and Splinter. The candles flicker in the dim light of the room, and thunder strikes outside again, but April has never felt more content. Feeling all the stress wash out of her shoulders as she looks at the couple before her. 

“Oh, Yoshi, she’s just precious!” Tang Shen smiles endearingly at her even though she was speaking to her husband. “I like this one.” The tips of April’s ears turn as red as her hair as she basks in the compliment. She’s never met her mom, but she thinks she misses her.

“Forgive her, Tang might come off a bit much before you get to know her,” Splinter ignores the swift glare his wife sends him before continuing, a hint of a smile on his lips. “Please explain to us your - for lack of a better word - predicament, April.” 

So April tells them everything, starting at the beginning. Her family, how they were captured by the Kraang - experimented on for generations. Her Mom, who had been taken and never returned. The years of watching over her shoulders, the paranoia - the people she’d seen who had tried to take her away too. Her and her Dad, the only person she had left. She explained the loneliness, the isolation, how it drove him into being the anxious mess he was today. She had to stop as she got more and more emotional, but with their kind encouragement she eventually continued. She explained how they had left to start over, but she _knew_ , she just knew that it wouldn’t work, that they were being followed. 

April told them of her school day, how she’d met Donnie in her first period and their encounters with Shredder’s goons, and then - Kraang Prime. She knew she wasn’t safe, that the Kraang knew she was in the city - that school, and they were going to stop at nothing to hunt her down. Tang Shen had come to sit next to her, gripping her hand as she talked. For moral support, maybe, but it felt _so_ good just to talk and not be treated like she was insane. She had been afraid for too long. 

When she finally finished, she let out a soft sob. She hadn’t realized she was crying, but Tang Shen strokes her back comfortingly and she doesn’t feel the need to cover her tears. “You’ve been harboring all of this for far, far too long, my child,” Splinter says, making her look up. Tears blurred her vision, but she blinked them away as she listened. “I have no words for how angry and heartbroken I feel on your behalf. You’ve made the wise decision, to ally yourself with my family. We protect each other, and that protection extends to you, too - if you so desire it.” April nods, and Tang laughs. 

“We’d obviously like to teach you how to defend yourself too, April,” Tang says, voice breathless from her laugh. “When those Kraang - and Shredder too, when he figures out who you are - come after you...we’d like you to be ready,” Tang doesn’t look at Splinter, but April does. Her husband nodded, confirming everything she said. 

“Wow - um, thank you, both of you, I obviously accept every bit of help you have to offer, and...it’s surreal. I just thought I’d die today, and...it's crazy how lucky I am. To meet an entire family like this, just because I sat down next to Donnie.” April brushes the last of her tears away. “I’m honored. And I’d - like to start immediately, so I can help defend my father...and - and you guys, too.”

Splinter nods as he considers her words. “We will work out a schedule later tonight, then.”

Tang laughs again and stands slowly, offering April her hand. April takes it. “I’d like to think it was fate that brought you to us, April, but Donatello does have his charms. Come, let’s join the others for dinner.”

Splinter follows behind, arm snaking securely around his wife as April led the way out of the dojo and out of the hallway to the main room. Everyone else there is laughing, probably because of something Mikey said, and they all look up at the newcomers after a second. Unanswered questions burning through all of their eyes. _Oh, wait, they actually want to know -_

“April is joining our family,” Tang Shen beams excitedly, and everyone whoops, making April laugh. She takes a seat on the arm of a sofa, next to Mikey, and he passes a pizza slice to her immediately. She raises her eyebrows but takes a bite nevertheless, turning to the side so Mikey can play with her hair _again_. She wonders if this will be a permanent fixture in their lives now and smiles just thinking about it. The conversation is easy and April learns a bunch about the others - Mikey loved to skateboard, Leo loved a show called Space Heroes (which Raph loathed), Casey had been a vigilante for a few years before he met the brothers, Raph was the biggest hothead out of all of them but was actually a big softie - he also had a turtle named Spike that he had lost and sulked about for months, Donnie had won the science fair multiple times and had even gone to state... the list went on and on.

In turn, April decides to share some things about herself in return for their friendship and trust. Her favorite color was yellow, but ironically she hated summertime - her favorite season was winter. When she was younger her Dad took her to California, just the two of them in a car for days as they traveled across the country. They could have seen the ocean anywhere; Florida, Texas, even New York - but he wanted her to see the place where he and his mom physically met for the first time. She felt safe at the ocean - at _any_ ocean, because of the stories he’d tell her as they walked along the shoreside. Besides that, though, she told them little details about her that didn’t seem like much but they drank in; she was pan, she hated vegetables but loved fruits, she adored chocolate and loved horror movies. 

After they’re done with dinner, they spread out again to work on the small amount of homework they had. Since Donnie and April had the most classes together, he asks if they wanted to work together - to which she happily agrees too. They only have a few worksheets in each class and they finish them easily. April logs in on Donnie’s computer and fills out her registration forms for cross country, leaning into the hallway and reminding Leo and Raph to do them too. She changed out of her workout clothes and back into her original ones, borrowing a sweatshirt from Mikey that she’d _promised_ to return the next day but was shot down as he shrugged, telling her to keep it and that orange was ‘totally her color’. She texts her Dad about her new friends and that she had made it safely to their place in the storm, but gets no response. She figures he’s sleeping and puts the phone in her back pocket.

At around 7:30 Splinter draws them all together and goes over the plan for the coming school days. They are all to stay together in school, using Leo’s buddy system trick from earlier. After a lot of consideration, April is given a small weapon - a taser that Donnie had built - only to be used for emergencies. Everyone else already had weapons; condensed versions that they carried in their backpacks at all times for extreme situations. She wasn’t that surprised, them being ninjas and everything. Splinter listens to everything April knows about the Kraang and sighs when there’s a lull in the conversation. 

“Maybe we should...alter her appearance, Sensei,” Donnie proposes, continuing when Splinter gestures at him to explain. “Dye her hair a bit, change her clothing style. Would you be okay with that, April?” 

“If it keeps me safe and away from the Kraang, of course,” April responds, crossing her hands over her chest as she tilts her head back to the conversation. She had been staring at the rain still falling outside, not as hard now but still going steadily. The Sun was almost gone, and the sunset behind the heavy clouds turned the sky a brilliant mix of purple, pink, yellow, and orange. The city was still just as busy, unperturbed by the weather. “I could...get a haircut.”

“No!” Mikey shouts from the sofa. “Do _not_ get a haircut. I adore your hair, Ape.” 

“I think I’ll get a haircut just to spite Mikey.”

The laughter from everyone in the vicinity following that statement made April grin and Mikey grumble, turning away from them to watch his cartoons. “You really want a haircut?” Shinigami asks, cocking her hip to the side. “I could give you one. I’ve been trained, back in Japan.”

“Really? Thank you!” April nods gratefully in her direction. “It’s at my waist now, I think I just want it up to the small of my back. Maybe a bit shorter.”

“Right now? Or…” 

“Maybe we should wait until we have the dye,” Leo says. “Tomorrow.”

“I’ll call my Dad and tell him, just in case he thinks I’m being rebellious,” April pulls out her phone as she talks, pulling up her Dad’s contact and pressing the button. She steps a bit away from the conversation, still in the living room but far enough away from the others to where her father had all of her undivided attention. The call kept ringing, once, twice, thrice, then went to voicemail. April, shaking her head, tried again. Only to get the same response.

April fought the tingling sense of panic in her lower belly and tried for a third time. Then a fourth. This time, fortunately, it went through. “April?” Kirby O’Neil’s voice on the other end of the line should have been a comfort to his daughter, but the tone of his voice made her heart skip a beat. It was quiet, whispered. Ragged, like he had been running for miles.

“Are you okay?” she got no answer, and she raised her voice. “ _Dad_!” Everyone immediately looked over at her, startled from the tone and volume. Tang Shen steps forward, but April steps back, holding an arm out to silently tell her not to come any closer. Phone still pressed to her ear, she tried again. “Dad, please, what’s going on -

And then there was a loud scream, so loud and explosive in her ear she yelps and drops the phone to the ground, clutching her right ear as the sound reverberated throughout her entire head. The speaker button must have gotten hit as she let her phone fall between her fingers, and the scream doesn’t stop, growing louder and more agonizing to listen to every second it continues. She recognizes that voice. “Dad -

Just as quickly it cuts off. It’s completely silent in the apartment, everyone’s staring at the phone on the ground - and April can feel her heart trying to commit suicide up her throat, wondering what had possessed her father to make such an awful noise. “April! April, are you still there?” her dad screams, and she scoops the phone off the tiled floor immediately to answer. Her hands are shaking.

“Yes, I’m here! I’m here, what’s going on, just tell me _please_ -

“April, please...he’s here! Don’t come back to the apartment, whatever you do, get as far away from here as you can, get out, don’t look back - no! _She’s not here, you fucking lunatic! Stay away from my daughter, by help me God I’ll tear you apart if you lay one of your fingers on her -_

There’s a thud, and April realizes after a second that the phone must have been thrown to the ground. “Oh, Kirby. Just like your wife...so unwilling to cooperate for the greater good. I’m going to give you one more chance before the knives come back out - where the hell is April?” 

April drops to her knees, the world crashing out from under her as she recognizes the voice. It’s Prime, he’s at her apartment with _her father_. And she isn’t there to protect him, there’s no way to get to him in time, she can barely even keep her eyes open as her focus shifts in and out. The Hamato family, Casey, and Shini are staring at her in horror, putting together what was happening just as quickly as she did. It’s silent for maybe five seconds before Kirby spits out an answer, but it feels like an eternity.

“You aren’t going to _touch her_ , you sick sonuvabitch, and I’m not telling you a goddamn thing - 

“It doesn’t matter anyway, seeing that I know where she goes to school. Oh, don’t look at me like that, Kirby...were you stupid enough to think you could try and escape in New York? We had you tailed as soon as you left your farmhouse, had this place mapped down tight as soon as you got here. April may have eluded me today, but it won’t happen again,” Prime says, and April can hear the conviction in his words. He meant it. She had literal hours of freedom if she went back to that school. 

“You’re deranged.”

“I’m simply working for the good of humanity, my friend.” Prime laughs, and she can hear his voice coming closer and closer to the phone before there was a crinkling of glass and a nasally chuckle. “Seems like we have an eavesdropper! Hello, April.” 

Her voice doesn't even feel like her own as she fires back into the receiver. “Leave my dad alone, you sick - you fucking _madman -_

“Ah ah, let’s negotiate here, why don’t we?” Prime ignores her words easily, humming softly under his breath. “If you give yourself up now, your dad...well, he’ll get to live. And if you don’t…”

Kirby's response to that was instantaneous and heartbreaking. “No, no, _no_ , no April, please, don’t do anything he tells you to. Get as far away from this city as possible, and -

There was another scream, and April choked on the emotion that was now building up in her throat. She struggled to take in air. “Please, n-no! Don’t hurt him, I -

The line cut off before she could finish, and April yelled in pure frustration and fear, hurling the phone at the wall. She was standing before her brain caught up to her movements as she leaped towards the door to get to the elevator. It didn’t matter if it was too dark to navigate the rain soaked streets, or that she didn’t even know her address in the first place - she was getting home, she was turning herself in to save her father, she couldn’t just sit here and -

“April _n_ _o_!” the entire room shouted, but Mikey was the only one close enough to grab her and pull her back before her palm reached the door handle. She struggled in his strong grip immediately, trying to wriggle her way out from under him, but Mikey’s hold was relentless and she was so immensely tired. 

“Mikey, let me _go_ , I can’t just sit here, they’re going to kill him! _Let me go_!” April screamed, slapping and punching and pinching and scratching and doing everything in her power to get out that door. “Please, I can’t -

And her legs go limp as she suddenly stops fighting, falling to the floor and beginning to sob right there, right in front of nine people she had just met. It hurt, everything hurt so much, she couldn’t even _see_ the pain was so intense. She had lost everything; her new home, the remainder of her family, and she was still getting hunted and she was so _scared_. She feels nausea rise in her throat and she takes off - not towards the door, but towards their bathroom.

She reaches the toilet just in time and begins to throw up. Over and over again, still sobbing hysterically. She feels someone gather her hair in their hands as she heaves up the rest of her dinner until there’s nothing _left_ to throw up. Her eyes streamed and her throat ached and it feels like the pain would never stop.

She falls back against the person holding her hair - Donnie - and cries. She makes a limp fist, grasping Donnie’s purple sweatshirt weakly as her breakdown causes her oxygen to cut off and all noises in her ears to fade out completely. Donnie aches for the girl in his arms, the girl he barely knows but feels like he knows everything about at the same time. He stands after a minute, taking her in his arms bridal style. His family is still in the living room, not saying a word. The shock was still wearing in, along with the worry and the devastation for their newest family member. They all heard that conversation. They _all_ knew what had happened to April’s father. She had nothing left.

They take one look at Donnie with April in his arms and start talking at the same time, frantic and worried. Donnie yells for silence and they do as he says, eyes glancing between him and April. “She fainted,” Donnie states shortly, voice heavy and anxious, “she hyperventilated and the fast breathing decreases carbon dioxide in the blood – 

“Don, we know what fainting is, you don’t have to explain - 

“ _Shut up_ , Raph,” Don explodes, and he thinks he'd hit his older brother if he wasn't also holding a lifeless girl in his arms. “Just - just stop and help me put her down. Karai, Leo, I need a sedative from the lab. When she wakes up she might have another panic attack and...I don’t know. Hurt herself. Hurry, she’s waking up,” he says, kneeling at the couch. Karai and Leo exchange looks but do as instructed, rushing into Donnie’s lab and returning with a sedative in mere seconds.

April’s eyes fly open, but Donnie inserts the sedative into her arm and she exhales faintly, falling into the safe remnants of sleep. Donnie sighs, burying his face into his hands. What an awful day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey so um this chapter feels like a total mess sorry i wrote it at like 3am
> 
> kirby o neil...dead? i am rly making april suffer here yikes


	5. every night im dancing with your ghost

April still hasn’t woken up, but the Hamatos had done a good job of making her feel comfortable. Mikey had spread a blanket over April’s body, propping a pillow under her head for her to relax. Shinigami had joined him on the opposite couch, watching the sleeping girl with a concerned expression. 

Karai, Donnie, Leo, Raph, Casey, Splinter, and Tang Shen stood in the kitchen, trying and failing to come to grips with what had happened. “What are we going to do?” Leo had asked helplessly, for once at a complete loss of what to do. “She has no home, no family -

“We take her in, _that’s_ what we do!” Donnie had been standing silently, Casey’s arm around his shoulders, but he speaks with such conviction and an expression that clearly took no shit. None of his family members can meet his gaze but he doesn’t stop. “She just lost everything. _Everything_. I know we don’t know her that well, but that doesn’t matter. It _shouldn’t_ matter. We brought her here tonight to let her into our home, into our lives,” he pauses for only a second to gather emphasis before continuing, a fire in his eyes, “and you’re just...proposing we kick her out?”

“No one’s suggesting that -” Raph starts, but Casey cuts him off.

“Then why are none of you jumping to agree with him? And, I know,” Casey continues when Raph opens his mouth to argue, “I don’t live here, this isn’t my house. But I _am_ part of this family too. And I know what it’s like to live without a proper home,” Donnie glances up at him gratefully, leaning into the half embrace. He could always depend on his vigilante boyfriend to back him up, as crazy as it sounded. 

“I’m definitely _not_ saying we kick her out, not at all. I’d never do that, even if it was some random person and not April. I _want_ her to stay, she’s cool and fierce and someone we definitely need around,” Raph says, crossing his arms. “What I’m trying to say...is this place even safe for her?”

“We’ve never had an assault on this place, not in the seventeen years we’ve lived here,” Leo reminds him. “You’re right to be cautious, but with all of the alarms and things we’ve set up around the building, we’d be able to see Shredder or the Kraang from miles away.”

“And you don’t think that would change if they figured out our schedules? Follow us home?” 

“Raph -” Leo begins, exasperated, but Karai interrupts.

“He’s right. About school. It’s too dangerous. Not only for April, but for...all of us,” she looks up at Splinter, surprised to see that he’s nodding as well, supporting her on that. Just earlier tonight he’d been planning on sending them back, but what had happened to April had seemed to change his thought process. 

“My daughter is correct. It’s simply too dangerous to let you all go back to that school. So many unpredictable things can happen, it’s far too easy to get you alone,” Tang Shen sighs, looking at the crushed faces of her family that suddenly can't meet her eyes. She felt miserable for them, missing out on their junior year like this, but it was the right thing to do.

“Whoa, I thought we were talking about April, not us,” Raph holds his hands up in protest, “and you’re just saying we - what, drop out?”

“Yes,” Splinter taps his walking cane on the tiled floor as his children broke into conversation all at once. They immediately quiet and look up at him, though they were clearly having trouble staying quiet. “We should have done it earlier. I did not realize the amount of danger you all were in, and I’m truly sorry for that.” Tang Shen wraps an arm around her husband, who looks like he’s aged so much in the last couple of hours. 

“But what about - cross country, and…” Raph trailed off as Leo rounded on him.

“Raph, our _lives_ are at risk. April’s father was _killed_. How could you possibly think about cross country at a time like this?” Leo’s ponytail had been pulled out, dreads flying loosely around his face as he hissed at his immediate younger brother. Raph physically takes a step back but takes one forward just as fast, not willing to go down without a fight.

“Because I want a normal _life,_ Leo! What has being a ninja brought us? No, seriously, think about it. I love beatin’ freaks up as much as the next person, but what has that brought us? A life where we have to be cautious about every move we make, where we can’t even go back to school without worryin’ if we’ll get pulled into some shadows and _killed_? Tell me one good thing about our lives. What good has come out of what we do?”

“Raphael - 

“No, Sensei, I actually wanna hear what he says,” Donnie says, crossing his arms as he leans back against Casey to get a better look at Leo, who looks completely flabbergasted. After a moment he composes himself, looking more like their leader and not the scared teen they all knew he was.

“Our lives are pretty bleak, but we have eachother,” Leo says. “We’ve been lucky enough to _always_ have eachother. Some people,” he doesn’t have to say April’s name to know that she’s on their minds, “haven’t been that lucky. As much as it sucks, this is our life now. You know that as well as I do, Raph,” Leo rests his hand on his brother’s shoulder, holding eye contact with his brother’s emerald green eyes. “We have to make the most of it.”

Raph sighs, the fight draining out of his body. “Yeah, whatever,” Raph says, seeing the truth in Leo’s words. They were all stuck in this together, and that had to count for something. “It still sucks.”

“It sucks major, little brother,” Karai grins at him. “But listen, at least you won’t have to get up early to get to school on time.” 

“Like that’s a plus, you’d sleep all day if you could,” Raph spits back, a tiny smile spreading across his features. Tang Shen excuses herself as the siblings begin to squabble, having to write emails to the school telling them that she’d be pulling out nine kids, including Shini, Casey, and April. Splinter raised the worry that Shredder was in control of the school, but Tang Shen smiled, saying she’d be emailing the district instead.

They’d be gone just like that. The kids didn’t know how to feel about it yet, but they collectively moved into the living room to tell Shini and Mikey what was going to happen, Splinter staying behind to make tea.

Only to find April awake, sitting quietly with her knees pulled close to her chest, Mikey and Shini on either sides. She looked up at the noise of the newcomers and sighed quietly, feeling a spike of uncertainty at her future. She couldn’t go back to school, she had no idea if they’d let her stay - maybe she could leave in the morning, take a bus out of the city. Maybe they were already counting on that...well, she'd figure it out when the time came for it.

“...April? How are you feeling?” Leo asks, looking down at her with genuine concern. April shrugs a bit like that, forces out an “i-don’t-know” in a wrecked voice. It hurt to talk, much less think about what had happened. She definitely wasn’t okay, not by a long shot, but she wasn’t in danger of having another mental breakdown. Maybe later, when she had the privacy to do so.

“I don’t want to be a charity case,” she says, quietly. “I understand that I’m new, and your place is already crowded enough as it is - I don’t want to be a bother, I’m really sorry for everything, and...I don’t know, just let me stay the night so I can get out of here in the morning, please? It’s still raining and I don’t know if I’d be able to -

“Whoa, whoa, first of all, you are _not_ a bother, and you aren’t going anywhere,” Leo shuts that down immediately. “Tang Shen’s pulling all of us out of school right now, I think she said something about doing school online,” Leo notices April’s confusion and laments. “Did you _really_ think we’d let you go out there? Alone? With Kraang Prime after you?”

“Kind of, yeah. Not to be rude, but..people haven’t really been dependable in the past. I wasn’t expecting you guys to be any different, as much as I like you all,” is her response, rubbing her knees idly. “The only constant person in my life was my father, and...well, obviously he’s not here anymore.” She pinches her leg hard but doesn’t cry, taking deep breaths to calm herself down before she got too agitated. Mikey wraps an arm around her and sighs sadly, resting his chin on her shoulder. 

“Let us be the first dependable people in your life, then. You’re staying with us, April,” Donnie crouches in front of her, wincing at the utter shock in her eyes. “We aren’t letting him kill you.”

“I...are you sure?” April stammers hesitantly, wondering if it was all some cruel prank. She couldn’t dare to get her hopes up only to have them crushed. When Donnie’s expression doesn’t change, Karai chimes in, smiling softly at the redhead.

“I’ve always wanted a sister.” 

Tears spill down from her eyes and they’re wondering what they said wrong before April smiles, bright and beautiful and it makes their hearts ache. It’s so sad, how much this makes her happy - how she had nothing to rely on so she had to trust almost complete strangers to help her. But Donnie was right, she was a part of them now - she wasn’t going anywhere.

“Thank you,” she manages to get out, letting her legs fall away from her chest as she falls into Donnie’s waiting embrace. 

\--

She took the couch that night with Casey and Shinigami - burying herself underneath the massive amount of blankets while the others returned to their individual rooms for the night. It was comfy, but April still had trouble sleeping, slipping in and out of consciousness. She had nightmares, worse than usual now that her father was gone. She was awake around 2:00, staring out of the windows at the rain that was _still_ falling. It was gorgeous, reminding her of the beauty out in the world - despite all the pain she'd dealt with lately. She glances backwards, at Shinigami’s sleeping form on one of the other couches, but doesn’t see Casey. She looks down the hallway (she can see it from where she’s sitting), in an attempt to see if he’s sleepwalked somewhere.

Donnie’s lab had a light on underneath the door, and she wonders if that’s where he is. Hesitating for only a second, she stands, taking the blanket with her and heading down the hallway to Donnie’s door. She heard voices inside, speaking quietly but rapidly, like they were bantering. She recognizes Casey and Donnie’s voices and smiles tiredly, opening the door. 

They shut up immediately as she entered, probably thinking that she was Splinter or Tang Shen coming in to tell him to keep it down. Relaxing as they realize it’s just her, Casey and Donnie smile fondly over at her and it makes her stomach dance in excitement for some odd reason. _Weird_. “Couldn’t sleep, Red?” Casey asks, a goofy grin stretched across his face. She sees the unasked question in his eyes. _Couldn’t stay away from us?_

“Yeah,” she replies to both questions, but even as she says so a yawn escapes her. “What are you doing up?” 

“Trying to convince this asshole to go to bed,” Casey jabs a thumb in Donnie’s direction, who slaps it away with an annoyed mutter. “Do I have to convince you, too?” 

“That’s not going to be a problem, I’m beat.” April walks sluggishly forward, still trailing the blanket along with her. 

“There’s a bed over there, if you don’t wanna go back out to the couch,” Donnie points so she can see. April makes her way towards it, not even bothering to ask why he’d let her sleep on it. She was too tired to ask questions. 

“Oh, you’re only letting her sleep on there so _you_ don’t have to sleep.” Casey’s voice is accusing and makes April laugh a bit as she gets under the covers, sliding as close as she can to the wall.

“That bed is big enough for at _least_ three people, Jones. You’d know! How many times have we slept in that bed together?” Donnie’s voice is scathing, but April can detect the exhausted undertone in it and knows he isn’t really mad. She turns on her side so she can watch what happens, forcing herself to stay awake as Casey begins to snicker. “Shut up, that’s not what I meant, get your head out of the gutter.” Donnie snaps, blushing furiously. 

“Fine, so get in bed then, if it’s 'so big'! I’ll grab the lights. Don’t argue, Don, I can see how tired you are. Just do it,” Casey sighs, because Donnie had already opened his mouth to argue anyway. They have a silent stare off for about thirty seconds, which results in Donnie rolling his eyes and stalking over to the bed while Casey whoops (quietly, it’s a quiet whoop) and runs over to shut the lights off. Donnie throws the covers back and climbs under them, still stiff with annoyance. 

“Hi,” April says, and Donnie says it back just as quickly, light and nervous, gaze softening as he stares at her. The lights switch out and Casey makes it back in record timing, still gloating because he got Donnie to come to bed. Donnie threatens to kick him out and Casey shuts up at that, making April laugh (and making the two boys exchange glances in the dark, not that she's aware of it).

When they’re done goofing around and begin to fall asleep, April manages to ask the question that's floating on the tip of her tongue, still unanswered. “Why...why did you let me sleep in here with you guys?” it comes out quiet, but she knows they heard.

“Because we like you, that should be obvious,” Casey says, just as quiet.

“You - what?” April freezes. They couldn’t - it’s okay, whatever. He didn’t mean it like that. She forces the rising emotion in her throat down and shivers, pushing those thoughts to the back of her head. They were friends. They just met _yesterday_ , for God's sake - sharing a bed didn't mean anything, stop being stupid. Donnie spreads the blankets over them and April moves a bit closer to him, hoping he wouldn’t mind.

“You’re such an idiot, Casey.” Donnie seethes (he sounds extremely embarrassed but she decides to ignore that), rolling over to punch his boyfriend’s shoulder. “Can we go to sleep now?”

“Thought you didn’t want to go to sleep,” Casey snorts.

“Oh my god, shut up.”

April smiles, letting her eyes close as their useless bantering eventually fades and she falls into a dreamless sleep. Tomorrow was an unknown, but she was safe for tonight. And that was all that mattered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IF THE CHAPTER NAMES ARE CONFUSING U DONT WORRY THEY R JUST SONG LYRICS PWLALKE
> 
> anyway um...hey sorry this is so short im trying to update like 3 fics at the same time i hope u enjoy this is still kinda angsty sorryy


	6. romeo save me

April grins breathlessly, heart in her throat as she all but forces Leo to take a step backwards under the weight of her tessen. Leo smirks back at her, raising his sword, and they run at eachother -

Only for Splinter to disarm them both with a couple flicks of his wrist, slipping between the two of them so quickly that they lose balance and crash to the ground. “Aw, Sensei, what was that for?” Leo grumbles after a long moment of quiet agony and sends a quick glare to his brothers and Karai - who were kneeling at the edge of the dojo and trying (and failing miserably) to hide their snickering. April sits up, rubbing her head absently as she bites down a groan from the surprise landing. She takes Splinter’s outstretched arm and stands, retrieving her tessen from the ground.

“You were both engaged in battle, I wanted to remind you that there are always other aspects in a fight - to always be aware of your surroundings,” Splinter says, tapping his cane against the floor as he walked. “And...well, it was humorous,” he tilts his head sideways as Mikey finally bursts into full-fledged laughter. Leo sighed, embarrassed, but April had to hide a smile behind a hand. Their family antics never failed to make the mood a bit brighter.

“Training dismissed,” Splinter says, trying his best to ignore the way Mikey and Raph immediately stand up and lunge for the door in an attempt to get to the television first. He bids the rest of the group farewell with a wave of his hand and retreats to the back room to meditate. April follows the rest of them out, walking towards the living room and taking a seat on one of the couches. Karai heads to the island, jumping up on top of it to rest as she grabs an apple, but the rest of the brothers settle in the living room with her.

“I _totally_ had you on that one, Ape,” Leo smarts as he walks past, yelping as April kicks her feet out and the usually graceful Leonardo Hamato trips over her outstretched legs. Everyone in the surrounding vicinity laughs and April smirks, sticking her tongue out at Leo’s death stare. Little victories had to count for something - the last three months of living with these idiots had taught her that much. 

Donnie takes a seat at the arm of her couch, dragging his phone out of his sweatshirt pocket and checking the texts with a bored expression. “Casey wants to know if we’re going on patrol tonight,” he informs Leo, who nods. 

“One of your scanners picked up another Kraang warehouse, Don, I got the notification on my phone. I think we should check that out tonight and see if we can get any more information -

“I wanna come,” April interrupts, causing them both to pause and look down at her, then at eachother. She shouldn’t have been surprised when Leo shook his head no, citing the usual ‘it’s too dangerous’ ‘the kraang are counting on you showing up, april!’ yadda yadda _whatever_. April groans before Leo could go off into yet another lecture about responsibility and tries her best to ignore his disapproving look. Donnie chuckles quietly but continues to stay blissfully uninvolved.

“Listen Leo, I know you’re just looking out for me, and I appreciate it - I really do,” she adds more emphasis when she sees Leo’s disbelieving expression. “But this is my fight too. The Kraang stole what was left of my family, killed my dad,” she closes her eyes, remembers that horrible night and that traumatic phone call she’d had to endure. She opens them after a second, focusing on Leo with a fire in her eyes. She was _not_ taking no for an answer. “I’m _tired_ of training. The Kraang are here because of me, I’m not going to keep taking the sidelines. I’m not the same girl you met in August, Leo, and...I think you know that.”

“I do know that, and I respect you for it.” Leo nods, and she can tell he means it by the smile that appears on her face. It makes her feel happy inside - the amount of respect he has for her. “You’re the first kunoichi in the family that Splinter’s trained in well...forever, since he never got a chance to train Karai.”

“All the more reason she should be allowed to come,” Donnie says. Leo and April glance at him and Donnie quickly looks back down at his phone, scrolling idely. “I mean, what? Didn’t say anything. At all.” 

April laughs and elbows Donnie in the ribs. “Thanks for the support, Dee.” 

Donnie tries to ruffle her hair and remembers she had a bun in. “No problem Ape,” he says fondly, returning the rib jab and making her inhale a bit, surprised. Their dreadlocked leader rolls his eyes, huffing in exasperation at his brother and friend. The two of them had really hit it off and were closer than ever - and when Casey showed, the three of them were like three peas in a pod. It wasn’t hard to guess their dynamic, either. Donnie was clearly interested in her, and Casey bordered on full fledged flirting with both Don and April whenever the opportunity arose.

Leo still wasn’t sure about April’s feelings back - after that first night, after she had lost her Dad, April had worked on editing and filtering her responses to situations. She was closing herself off, bit by bit, and Leo hated it. 

“You two are hopeless,” Leo says, because it’s true. He’d have to weasel the truth out of his red-headed friend later tonight, then. He dreads it because he knows how hard it’ll be. “Fine, you can come. But you stay with us at -

“All times, yes, I know Leo,” April rolls her eyes right back, clearly tired of everyone babying her. “Listen, I’ve been training for _three months_. What can go wrong?”

-

The five left that night - Karai went her own way to check up on a lead with Shredder. Leo made her promise to keep in touch, but April knew she’d be fine. Shinigami would be with her, and the two of them together could handle just about anything this city threw at them.

They decide to travel by rooftop instead of taking the streets, just because it’d be better to stay stealthy, and April can tell that the boys are expecting her to be slower just because she wasn’t as experienced. She proves them wrong easily enough - being on the cross country team since middle school _did_ have its benefits. She had lost weight since her father had died (not that anyone had pointed it out, but she could feel the lingering stares sometimes from the others) and was more nimble than ever before thanks to her training with Splinter. Nevertheless, she appreciates that they have an eye out in case she does fall behind, and basks a little under Donnie’s gaze specifically. 

They meet Casey at the foot of the warehouse they were going to be infiltrating, melting out of the shadows to greet him as they met in the adjoining alleyway. Casey immediately jumps on Donnie and wastes no time in hugging April afterwards - making her yelp sharply in surprise. Donnie and Casey then get into a whispered argument, like always - if April didn’t know they were dating she’d swear they were rivals. Leo sighs, Raph scoffs, and Mikey looks like he wants to join in the small squabble.

“They argue like a married couple,” April hisses, coming over to stand by Leo. “Seriously, I don’t mind the hug, but he needs to watch the hockey sticks. Fuckers nailed me in the forehead.”

Leo swallows a laugh. “You know they like you, right? That’s probably what they’re fighting over.”

April turns as red as her hair. “N-no? What - _Leo_ -

“You like them too, don’t you?” Leo teases, a big grin on his face as he realizes he might not have to wait until they get home to interrogate her. The glare she sends him milliseconds later makes him briefly consider how many seconds he had to run away before she went full ninja on him.

“We are _not_ talking about this.”

“About what?” Mikey asks as he joins the conversation, making Leo’s grin get more feral and April’s eyes widen almost comically.

“About April’s big fat crush on Donnie and Casey.”

“ _Leo_ _you little shit_ -

“Oh, that? We’ve known for ages! Shit, when are ya gonna make a move, Ape?” Raph chimes in from Leo’s other side, and April slaps both palms to her head as she makes a mortified noise.

“Was I really that obvious?” she whispers, and Leo rubs her back comfortingly.

“Yes, you totally were, but I’m pretty sure everyone _except_ Donnie and Casey know, so you should be -

“Are we infiltrating this stupid Kraang base or _what_ ?” Casey thankfully interrupts the blue banded ninja (thank god both he and Donnie were suddenly hard of hearing) before he could attempt to make April feel better...after technically revealing April’s secret to the other brothers in the first place. But it didn’t matter much anyway because _apparently_ they already knew. “Casey Jones needs some serious action -

“Casey fucking Jones I swear to God if you refer to yourself in third person one more time I’m breaking up with you,” Donnie snaps, rolling his eyes. “Let’s just get inside and figure out what the hell the Kraang are planning.”

“And then we can get pizza!” Mikey grins, and yelps when Raph whacks him over the forehead. 

-

Their bantering and joking around slides to a complete stop as they enter through a back door, Leo taking point as they make their way further inside. The hallways they go through are dark, silent, and abandoned - with empty rooms full of nothing - but she forces that nervousness away (why did she feel like they were being watched?) as she keeps her eyes forward - on Raph’s back. Donnie grins as he peeks into a room at the end of the third hallway and finds a computer. Huh, not so abandoned after all.

“Jackpot! Let’s see if we can figure anything out,” Donnie hums as he steps into the room and up to the computer, hands flying expertly over the keyboard. He goes through the files one by one while the others pour into the room, leaving the door ajar as to not attract any attention. “I’m - holy shit. April,” Donnie says, freezing all the occupants in said room immediately. April tenses and diligently moves to his side.

“This computer - it tells us everything. Why they’re after April, their plans, and…” Donnie swallows before continuing, glancing at her and trying his best to gauge her expression. “...and what happened to your Dad. From what I can decode - he’s not dead, April.” 

“What.” April says, and presses a hand to her head as the multitude of feelings threatens to overwhelm her. Shock, confusion, grief - she shakes her head and pulls her thoughts out of that dangerous road and back towards the present, back into figuring out what Donnie was saying. She tries to scan over what Donnie was looking at, but got lost in seconds. “What do you mean by _not dead_? And how can you read that? It’s a bunch of numbers and letters.” 

“It’s Base 64 - it’s how they’re hiding their information from intruders like us,” Donnie explains, then continues to talk in a lower voice as his mind moves faster than he can talk. “All of this information - it’s in a zipped file and it needs to be unlocked by an administrator...I can figure out where he's being held, figure out their plans, we can take them _down_ -

“You can get in, right?” Leo asks, stepping towards Donnie’s other side and staring down at the computer screen even though he couldn’t make sense of all of the jumbled numbers and letters. He must have realized the importance of this computer, though, because he looks completely serious. Donnie sighs, annoyed.

“I should be able to hack it, but...it’ll take too long to do it here, and we don’t have the time.” Donnie reaches into his pocket as he talks and pulls out a flash drive. 

“You just...had one of those in your pocket?” Raph folds his arms, raising his eyebrows. 

Donnie rolls his eyes as he plugs the flash drive into the computer. “You should know that I never leave home without one, Raph.” He messes with the computer a bit more and then steps away completely. “Okay, the transfer’s starting. We should be good in about four minutes -

Mikey quickly shushes Donnie from his place over on the other side of the room and spins, crouching so he can stare out of the small crack in the door they’d left when they’d come in. Casey takes a defensive position behind him and the room’s occupants wait with bated breath as maybe half a dozen people move past their room with stiff, clanky footsteps. Once they were sure that the people in the hallway were gone Mikey shut the door completely, falling back against it with a relieved sigh. “We might not _have_ four minutes,” Leo says, tightening his grip on his katana. 

“They’re going to feel it when the transfer completes,” Donnie sighs, pulling his bo staff out of the protective casing he had looped around his shoulder. “There’s going to be an alarm.”

“Of course there’s gonna be an alarm,” Raph groans, throwing his hands up and nearly hitting Leo in the face. “When does anything ever go right for us?” 

“Since never, Raphie,” Mikey says from his place on the floor. “But at least we aren’t mutant turtles.”

“What?” Raph asks, flabbergasted.

“Oh, nothing - just had a dream we were mutant turtles, Splinter was a mutant rat, Tang Shen was dead, Karai was controlling the Foot Clan instead of Shredder, April had psychic powers, Shini was a witch, you were dating this weird salamander thing from space -

“Were you taking drugs?” Casey asks, completely serious as he stares down at the curly haired prankster. “Seriously, your brain comes up with a lot of weird shit, but that one definitely takes the cake.”

“Shut the hell up, Casey, you _wish_ you had this imagination.” Mikey pokes his tongue out at his friend. “ _And_ , in my dream, in case you were wondering, you were exactly the same. Vigilante, awful clothing style, ratty hair...boring as hell. My imagination couldn’t fix you.”

“Mikey I’m gonna fucking kill you -

“It’s done,” Donnie interrupts loudly, and the blaring alarm overhead confirms his words milliseconds later. He swipes the flash drive from the computer and Leo takes over again, quickly ordering them out of the room and back down the hallway. Shouts from behind them get increasingly louder and they have to sprint out the back doors, Mikey twisting so he can throw a couple smoke bombs down to make their escape easier. 

They make it up over a rooftop and are a couple blocks away before they even think about relaxing. “Well...that was anticlimactic,” April says after a minute of quiet panting, staring back the way they’d come. 

“We should have blown something up,” Raph complains. Leo throws an arm around his brother good - naturedly. 

“Let’s go back home and order pizza, and I _promise_ to let you throw the first punch if the Purple Dragons show their ugly, punchable faces,” Leo grins sideways at his brother, and Raph considers that briefly before shrugging.

“Good enough.” 

-

Back in the safety of their apartment, Donnie drags his computer out of his room and plops it on the table in the living room, inserting the flash drive and letting the computer sort out the information overload. Karai and Shinigami come back maybe half an hour later with nothing new to report, so dinner is mostly Casey and Mikey exaggerating their adventure and relief from Splinter and Tang Shen over no one being hurt. The computer gives off a ping when it cools down and Donnie pulls the computer onto his lap, making room for April to sit down next to him. The others continue to talk as Donnie throws everything he knows into hacking into the Kraang’s files. 

After about fifteen minutes Donnie grins from ear to ear and whoops - and April knows he’s done it. Before she can even fathom what she’s doing she presses a kiss to his cheek - in front of their entire family. Donnie goes from shocked to overjoyed to just blushing like a madman as he stubbornly refuses to meet any of their knowing gazes, _especially_ Casey’s. He clears his throat about fifty million times and clicks on one of the files, expression becoming more serious as he reads through.

“Okay, April - and...everyone else, too. Kirby, April’s dad - he’s not dead,” Donnie begins after a second, glancing up from the computer screen to everyone else. Shocked stares from the people who didn’t know - and concerned ones from the ones who did flicking between April and Donnie, trying to silently gauge her reaction. April takes a drink of water instead of giving a proper response, refusing to give them an inch because she knew they’d take miles. She trusted these people with her life, but not with her emotions. Donnie’s expression is tense and she can tell that there’s more news. And not good news.

“That’s - that’s great,” Karai stammers, a hesitant smile appearing on her face. “Do we know where he is?”

“He...according to this, he was sent to a psychiatric hospital - an insane asylum,” Donnie says, gathering his courage to continue, looking back down at his computer just to be absolutely certain. “And...he was lobotomized.” 

The water glass falls out of April’s hands and hits the ground, smashing into a million pieces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> POWEALLJERSAI what is wrong with me when will i stop torturing april the world will literally never know
> 
> anyway. next chapter is fluffy. no angst. i PROMISE


	7. wait for it

April stands, sidestepping the broken glass ( _she’d apologize for that later)_ and ignoring the way they all stare at her. She walks away, past the couches and her friends, pinching the bridge of her nose as she squeezed her eyes shut. She heard Mikey ask what a lobotomy was hesitantly - and Donnie, with no hurry to his answer, explained.

“They - it’s a surgical procedure, Mikey. Basically the nerve endings in lobes to the brain are severed. You lose your personality, your intuitiveness, your empathy...and your ability to function on your own. You lose _yourself_.” 

A stunned silence follows Donnie’s words from the others, and April makes it to the door. She goes through it, slamming it behind her, standing in the empty hallway of their apartment floor. Furious, April turns and punches the wall (and almost immediately regrets it as her knuckles crack and bruise under the force) and then rests her head on it, breathing in and out with labored breaths. She almost _wished_ he died. This was worse, it was ten times worse. Her father was no longer himself.

She yells angrily, barely managing to restrain herself from punching the wall again, and pulls at her hair, pacing back and forth from one end of the hallway to the other, multitasking between rubbing her arms like she was shivering from the cold to pulling at the loose strands of her hair that escaped her bun. _Why was this happening could she just catch a fucking break once in her damn life_ -

“April?” a voice asks, and she stops pacing abruptly, glancing up at the owner. Donnie. And Casey. Of course they’d come out to check on her. “How are you feeling -

“Like _shit_ ,” she seethes, resuming her pacing without a second thought. “It’s my fault, all of it. I was born to be some sort of...some kind of fucking _weapon_ , that’s what they’re after. My brain, it’s important to them. And they took my Dad away because of it. Because they didn’t get what they wanted. They ruined him, Donnie!” she shouts, words and emotions and thoughts jumbled up as she tries to get her bearings but _can’t_ and exhales soundlessly, voice becoming noticeably quieter as she stops at a wall, spinning so her back is against it. “It’s my fault. Maybe if I had been there with him that first night, they would have taken me and left him alone…

“And what, Red? What would have happened to you?” Casey explodes, and when she looks up at them she notices that they’d both gotten several steps closer without her noticing. April wants to scoot back, put more distance between them so she can suppress the growing desire to collapse into Casey’s arms and start crying, but she’s rooted to the floor as Casey continues, a scowl on his face. “They don’t care about you, April. They want what’s in your head, but you fuckin’ know they could give two shits about what happens to you afterwards! They would have _killed you_ -

“And so what if they did!” April yells back furiously, glaring at Casey, so angry and so, so sad. ”Better me than him -

“Shut the _fuck up_ ,” Casey shouts, maybe three feet away from her now, probably holding himself back from taking her physically by the shoulders and shaking her. He looked _angry_. “How would that make us feel? Splinter, Tang Shen, Karai and Shinigami, _the boys_? Mikey, Leo, Raph - you can’t _say_ that! What about me n’ Don? What would we do without you - 

He shuts up then, slapping his hand over his mouth with a petrified glance at his boyfriend. Despite the situation and the rising tension of their argument, April has to force her stupid heart back down her throat so she didn’t implode. _What the fuck -_

“What. The fuck,” she says, staring at Casey, anger melting off her face. Replacing it with shock. “You - 

“And me, too.” Donnie adds, officially adding himself into the conversation. She glares at both of them without any heat, still reeling from Casey’s words. Leo was _right_ , they - 

“No,” she shakes her head, taking a physical step backwards. She clutches at her arms, seeking a purchase to dig her fingers into. “You don’t get to do that, to...come into my life, and make me care about you, and say things like that, knowing who I am, what _kind_ of person I am. You…” she clenches her fingers harder, digs her nails in deeper, and she can feel the skin break. “I can’t be around you, around _both_ of you, like that, I - I’ll only get you hurt, it happened to my Dad and it’ll happen to you and I can’t lose you too -

“No, _no_ , April, please,” the anger is completely gone off of Casey’s face and he looks heartbroken, stepping forward to take her fingers away from her arms. She lets him, scrabbling for a footing. Everything had been getting so much better after she moved in with the Hamatos, after she started training, after she fell into place with this weird and amazing family. She’s been working so hard to get her emotions under control and that was all suddenly slipping out from under her.

“We both...we talked about it. About us,” Donnie gestures between himself and Casey as he speaks, “about you, about. About the _three of us_. About how you’re the bravest girl we’ve ever met. About how we want you in our life permanently, for better or worse. Besides us.”

“Donnie -

“Don’t say I don’t know what I’m talking about. We do. Both of us, we’ve _wanted_ this,” Donnie doesn’t let her interrupt. Casey confirms with a nod, his eyes never straying from her’s. “I knew it as soon as you walked into Bradford’s class that first time.” He shifts, hesitating, before taking his hands out of his sweatshirt pocket to touch her. She doesn’t tense, knowing that it’s just him, it’s just _Donnie_ , and it’s just Casey, it’s the two people she trusts more than anything.

Donnie’s dark, slightly trembling fingers touch her right cheek gingerly, and April relaxes, letting him cradle the side of her face. “I…”

“Are you guys alright out here? We heard yelling.” says a new voice, and the three of them instantly jump apart, almost flushing guiltily even though nothing even remotely close to bad was happening between them. Leo’s head is poking through the door, a concerned expression on his face. He had taken his ponytail out, and his dreads spilled fully down his shoulders. April presses a hand to her chest, trying to slow her heartbeat (she vowed to hug Leo later, the guy was a genius).

“Yeah... _yeah_ , we’re alright,” Casey scratches the back of his head, still looking spooked as Leo opens the door a bit wider, scrutinizing the three of them. He seems satisfied with Casey’s answer and a mischievous smile spreads across his features. Forget the hug, he was about to screw everything up -

“How’s my favorite threesome?” Leo snickers, and April has never wanted to punch someone so bad in her entire life. Donnie and Casey groan so loudly that Leo, still grinning, closes the door to avoid their wrath. It's an awkward silence for maybe three beats before April laughs, feeling the tension drain out of her shoulders fully. They exchange glances and laugh with her. After a moment, when they’ve calmed down, Donnie looks towards the elevator and back towards them.

“Wanna go to the roof?” he asks with a grin. 

“Um, fuck _yes_?” Casey responds, smirking right back, reaching out his hand to take April’s. She follows behind them as they go to the elevator, mashing the button impatiently and entering the small dimly lit room. “Don, the elevator only goes up to fifty, how are we -

“There’s a staircase that leads up to the roof on level fifty,” Donnie says slowly, like he was talking to an idiot. April laughs, and a massive hole in her chest is still trying to process everything that’s happened tonight. It feels like she shouldn’t be laughing because of the information Donnie had revealed to them earlier about her father and she was a mixture of jubilation and devastation and all she wanted to do was -

Casey and Donnie are staring at her, at her expressions, in her eyes, and she doesn’t pretend anymore. “I’m not...okay,” she says, slowly, the words coming out quietly and hesitantly and they nod at that because they fucking _know_ and then they’re hugging her.

Both boys are taller than her, completely enveloping her (and each other, since she was tiny and Donnie had long limbs) in their strong, safe arms. It’s not the first time they’ve done that, hugged her so hard like they could squeeze all of the angst and issues she had out of her. She sags against them, closing her eyes and bites her lip so the tears don’t soak her cheeks yet. 

When the elevator doors open, April and Casey follow Donnie across the hallway, past the rooms on this floor to, sure enough, a staircase leading up. A little sign on the door says roof access, and it's locked with a keycode needed to unlock it, but Donnie taps in the little code and it beeps. Donnie pushes the door open, failing to hide his beam.

“How’d you know that?” Casey asks bemusedly as Donnie holds the door open for them.

“Hacked the building’s info center in case we needed a quick escape,” Donnie says cheekily, letting the door close behind them with a satisfying click as they walked up the stairs. It’s about three short flights, and the door leading out onto the roof loomed at the top. “I haven’t had time to scope this place out...until tonight.”

“You brought me and April up here to help you scope out a potential escape route?” Casey sighs, almost sounding disappointed. “I thought this was, like, the Princess and The Frog, where Tiana n’ Naveen go out on the roof at the end of the movie in their restaurant to dance -

Donnie rolls his eyes and stops where he stands, grabbing the collar on Casey’s shirt and pulling him closer and closer until his lips meet with his boyfriend’s. Casey makes a surprised noise in the back of his throat but closes his eyes, hands resting on Donnie’s stupidly muscled chest as he melts into the kiss.

April swallows thickly as she watches, _maybe_ a bit jealous of both of them (and a bit in awe that they liked _each other_ but also _her_ and hopefully she’d get to do this with them too). She wants to be in both Donnie’s place and Casey’s at the same time, and...wow, maybe she wanted to be kissed by _both of them_ at the same time and that’s such an overwhelming feeling - 

Donnie pulls away after another ten - something seconds, letting go of Casey’s strained collar. “It’s ‘April and I’, dipshit,” Donnie mutters plenty loud for them both to hear, turning away and continuing up the stairs like he _didn’t_ just make out with him for half a minute. Casey stares after him, gobsmacked, until April hits him loosely in the shins. 

“You _dork,_ you watch Disney movies?” She smiles fondly, trying to maintain her composure as Casey makes yet another incomprehensible noise and takes her hand again, tugging her after Donnie. “I’m going to take that as a yes,” she laughs as he holds up his middle finger, face as red as April’s hair.

They reach the door only seconds later, and Donnie pushes it open with a grunt. There’s not much up there besides a little storage shed, and it would be certain death if they were to fall off, but the view makes up for it immediately. 

“Oh, my god…” April gets closer to the edge of the roof, glancing down at the drop stretching out under her. There's a guardrail, sure, but if they ever had a fight up here they’d be dead as soon as someone fell over said guardrail. The way they got up was the only way down, unless they had, like, ziplines or something. She wouldn’t put Donnie past something like that, though, and looks across her city.

The stars were out tonight, though she could barely see them because of the light pollution and the thin clouds that blanketed the sky. The city is alert with action like always, cars dotting the streets, lights flickering in the tall skyscrapers around them as people finally went home for the night. She senses Donnie and Casey flanking her, taking in the city and the view and how calm it was with her.

“No way down,” Casey leans on the guardrail, glancing down at the ground like she did. He smirks, saying, “Sad. So we can dance now, right, Dee?”

“What’s your obsession with dancing on rooftops - 

“I _told_ you, in Princess and The Frog -

“Casey you’re seventeen years old why are you watching _Disney_ movies -

“Mikey got me into them!” Casey defends. “And...my sister. She liked them, too.”

Donnie stiffens, placing his hand on Casey’s shoulder. Casey looks away, back over the city, and April aches a bit in sympathy. Casey’s mom, years ago, had left her husband and Casey without a look back, taking his younger sister with her. He had no idea where they’d gone, how he was supposed to get in contact with them...anything. He blamed his father for it, and it was one of the reasons he was always at the apartment, why he had a permanent sleeping bag in their living room.

“We can dance, Case,” April grabs his hand. “All three of us. But...we need to talk about. Us. A-And if you guys want me, here, with both of you, permanently. I’m not good at it, at relationships. I’ve lost the only person who gave a shit about me before you guys. For good. He’s not coming back,” she says, and she thinks she’s finally accepting that, as much as it burns and hurts and makes her sick. “And before I say _anything_ I need you guys to know that -

“April, we. Me n’ Don...we aren’t going anywhere. I know it feels like you don’t have anything left...I get it. I get it, I’ve been there. Sometimes I feel like that, too. Even though I’ve had him for almost a year,” he jabs his thumb at Donnie as he talks, “it’s still hard. But Red, me n’ Don, we…”

"Want you,” Donnie takes up Casey’s lingering sentence, placing his dark hand over April’s pale white and Casey’s tan hands, squeezing them both gently. “More than anything. I want this to work, the three of us to work. Maybe it’s too fast, maybe we haven’t known eachother for years like Karai and Shini, maybe we’re young and _stupid_ and there’s a war happening...but you two, right here, right now - you’re the only things I’m sure about in my life. My constants. I _want_ this.”

April’s reeling, seconds away from sobbing over their interlocked hands, but she feels right, she knows it's right, she wants them, she wants this too. “Me, too. I want it. All of it. Both of you.”

“Then what are you waiting for?” Casey grins, looking like Christmas had come early. The smile is contagious, and April’s grinning, so is Donnie, just standing on the roof of their home - a ninja, a kunoichi in training, and a vigilante, high hopes even though their lives were in complete disarray. “Kiss us, Red.”

April does just that, leaning forward (and up, a bit. Being short fucking _sucked!_ ) to kiss Casey first in an attempt to get rid of that shit eating grin. His lips are warm, maybe from Donnie’s, and insistent and demanding, just like his character. He held nothing back from her, honest and open with her as their mouths work to fit together perfectly. April hears a strained _oh_ , _god_ coming from Donnie and squeezes their conjoined hands again. When April finally pulls away, numb and shocked, Casey’s _still_ fucking smiling. “I felt like a newbie in there. You sure that was your first kiss, Red?”

“It wasn’t _bad,_ was it?” She feels herself saying hurriedly, even though she was pretty sure Casey just paid her a compliment. 

“Definitely not, babe. Don’t look now, but Dee’s giving you the fuck-me eyes -

“Fuck you, Casey, I am _not_ -

April laughs, turning towards Donnie and taking the taller boy’s chin in her hand, angling it away from Casey and their blooming argument. Donnie falls silent quickly, staring down at her with a nervous expression on his face and brown eyes unreadable. She thinks of the boy she met in that class all those months ago, the awkward, quiet boy who had taken her to the rest of his family, has literally saved her life by giving her a place to live. She smiles, standing on tiptoes to press her lips against his.

 _Donnie’s_ lips are soft, and smooth, and warm, and _different_ compared to Casey, but still just as good. Casey sucks in a breath as he watches Donnie relax, placing his free hand on April’s waistline and pulling her closer, taking charge and deepening the kiss himself. April felt all of the emotions, the worries and anger and _fear_ melt into a goo at the back of her mind as she focuses on being _alive_ , being in the moment with the two of them.

Eventually they have to stop, taking quiet pants as they gulp down the much needed air, but it’s different. They’re comfortable, at ease, relaxed. “Why didn’t we do that sooner?” Donnie grumbles, frustrated. April sighs, wondering the same thing. It was so easy, being with them. She didn’t have to pretend.

“That was. Really hot,” Casey splutters. “Can we do that again? Like, really soon?”

“Yes, Casey,” April agrees quickly. “Really soon. After we finish dancing, in fact.”

“Oh yeah, impromptu dancing party on the roof,” Casey sings, grabbing his phone and opening YouTube, blaring the volume to the highest it would go.

“Do not play Party Rock Anthem. I’ll launch you headfirst off this fucking building,” Donnie warns, eyes narrowed despite the hint of a blush still present on his face.

“What’s wrong with Party Rock Anthem -

“Oh, for the love of _God -_

April grins as they start arguing, content to just sit and watch them until they come to an agreement. She wasn’t okay, not by a longshot, but she thinks, sitting there and watching the two boys that wormed a way into her heart, that she will be, eventually.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> getting back to the angst soon!! promise ill stop being such a dick to april


	8. sunflower!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> heyyyyyyy

“Okay, shut the hell up,” April grins, jutting her hip to the side as she stares up at the taller, darker boy with the long dreadlocks. “We are _not_ fucking.”

“You’re totally fucking.” Leo replies, reaching around her in one of the cabinets for a water glass. “Stop!” he says as he sees April about to interrupt. “Don’t say a word, O’Neil. I know what you three get up too.”

“Oh _sure_ you do,” April puts emphasis on the ‘sure’, rolling her eyes. “We are _not_ fucking.” she repeats, even though Leo’s eyeing her with a _don’t give me that bullshit_ expression and she feels her resolve already crumbling. After another silent staredown she cracks, burying her head in her hands. “Okay! You caught me. It was _one_ time. One!” 

“Mhhhhmmmm,” Leo says, obviously not buying it as he turns away from her to get to the refrigerator. The whirl of the ice machine doesn’t drown out Leo’s next words. “Seems like you three are getting more frisky than Karai and Shini,” he continues, smirking. April’s cheeks _burn_.

“You are so gross,” April mutters as Leo cackles. “I hate you!” she insists, though she feels a smile emerge on her face as Leo’s laughter grows in volume. April swallows a laugh. The longer she spent time with this family the crazier they got. And _apparently_ Leo was a huge gossip and knew everything about his family, including their sex lives. Was she surprised? No, of course not. 

“Hey y’all,” Someone shouts from the door, sounding exhausted. A voice she hadn't heard in what seemed like forever. “We’re back!” 

April’s eyes widen and Leo twirls where he stood, running to go meet the person at the door without another word to the ginger. His dreads fly as he whips around the corner and excited shouting can suddenly be heard, disrupting the serene quiet of the last few hours. April follows him more slowly, glancing outside. The sun was heading on it’s trek down, turning the sky mainly orange but with specks of alternating pink and yellow. It cast a glow on their apartment, causing April to close her eyes for a split second and grin. Life could be worse. It could definitely be worse.

“Hey, babe,” Raph exclaims as she finally rounds the corner of the kitchen, all smiles.

“Raph!” She yells, running to him and throwing her arms around him. The taller teen with broader shoulders grunts a bit in surprise but grins down at her, returning the hug. It was funny, how much their relationship had changed since that first day in the cafeteria - but April wouldn't change it for the world and she's so lucky to have a friend in the muscular hothead.

“Calm down, we were gone for a week!” he says, pretending to be annoyed, though he does squeeze her tighter before pulling away. Leo takes it upon himself to hug _both_ of them before he could get far and Raph and April groan. “Happy birthday, by the way,” he adds, once he’s got Leo’s dreads out of his face.

“Thanks,” April extracts herself from them, giggling. They remembered! “Where’s the others?”

“Your boyfriends' are gonna be here in a second, don’t look too excited,” Leo teases, poking her cheeks. April slaps him away, rolling her eyes. “They just went to go pick up something for you.”

“Awh, come on guys! I don’t want anything, just a dinner with everyone here -

“Nope! It’s November 28th, our girl’s a year older, and we’re gonna celebrate.” Raph’s longer mop of hair, which had been starting to look like Mikey’s, was tied back in a bun. His red streak was newer, probably recently done, and as April examines him she notices he’s got newer scars, on his face and his neck and his _arms_ and -

“I’m okay, I was shot at a couple times and I managed to fall off a building once or twice, but I’m good -” is all Raph manages to get out before he shuts up under April’s sudden glare. “I swear, ‘pril! Casey’s the one who got knocked up the most out there. He took a Kraang blaster straight to the face.”

“He _what_?” April yells, gobsmacked. “Oh, my god.”

“He’s fine, too!” Raph says quickly, realizing his mistake. “They’re all okay.”

“I’m going to go get Shini and Mike,” April says instead of responding to his statement, turning away from both of them, good mood sapped. They were all so _reckless_ , it fucking ached. She should have been with them out there. They _all_ should have been together, but no! Splinter had literally split them up. 

He sent Casey, Donnie, Raph, and Karai on a mission that took a whole _week_ , infiltrating the Kraang. Leo, April, Shini, and Mikey had stayed behind to do more covert missions with the Shredder, trying to figure out what he and his minions were planning next. He had pulled his forces from the highschool with no traces of the Hamato family, but was still keeping a close eye on it in case any of them tried to go back.

Being forbidden to go to school! That was new.

April was finally shown Shredder’s church - and they infiltrated that, too, just to see what they could find - and April had gotten into her first fight with Shredder’s goons. Bradford was just as annoying as he was in math class, and his mouth had quite literally fallen open when he recognized her and her strawberry blonde hair. “You - you’re with them?” he had asked disbelievingly, right before April had kneed him in the groin. 

Needless to say, the week away from the others wasn’t a total bust! They’d found some kind of brain serum that Stockman was messing with. They stole a couple samples from him and had brought them home, keeping them in Donnie’s fridge so they wouldn’t spoil. With him and the others back hopefully they could figure out what it was and what to do with it. 

For right now, though, April wanted a quiet dinner with her family and her two boyfriends. She was still slightly annoyed with Splinter for pushing them into two different groups, and she knew she wasn’t the only one. Shini was the only other person she knew besides herself with a significant other in the other group, and April knew she missed Karai more than anything - the two were usually inseparable.

She knocked on Karai’s (and her own, since she and Karai now shared a room) door, opening it slightly. Shinigami sat on Karai’s bed, playing with her phone. “Hey, birthday girl,” she purred. “What can I do for you?”

“It’s the others, they’re back,” April says, not bothering to hide her annoyed expression. Shini frowns, standing.

“What happened?” 

“It’s stupid,” April sighs, letting her head droop. “They’re so stupid. Casey took a blaster to the face, apparently. Raph’s all banged up. I don’t even know about Karai or Don.”

“They’re alive, aren’t they?” Shini smiles kindly, taking her by the shoulders and shaking her gently. “Don’t stress, _ma chérie_.”

“I know, I don’t want to, I was just...so _worried_ ,” April exhales, backing out of Shini’s grip and the girl herself. “I’m fine. I’m _fine_. I’m gonna go get Mikey.”

“...” Shini watches her go with an unreadable expression. The taller, more reserved girl swallows, feeling anger at Splinter. April’s had problems letting people she trusted out of her sight ever since her father was taken, couldn’t he see that? It wasn’t the best move on his part, but...well, hopefully he didn’t make the same mistake again. Shini didn't know if April could handle losing any more people. Sighing, she slips down the hallway to greet Raph and Leo. 

April knocks on the brothers’ door next, smiling at seeing Mikey laying on the ground and reading comics. “Hey, Mike,” she greets, watching as he immediately turns all of his attention off of his comic book and onto her. 

“Hey, ‘pril!” Mikey grins, pulling himself off the floor tiredly. Xever - who Mikey had been calling Fishface, had gotten in good during their main infiltration mission. Mikey was lucky his neck hadn’t _snapped_ with how hard he was attacked. He had bruises up and down his neck from where he was grabbed, and had turned into a sobbing, reclusive mess after they had escaped. It was out of character for him, truly, since he always pretended to be fine no matter what, but...Leo had explained afterwards that that was the first time he was really _grabbed._

(April and Leo had literally been _murderous._ No one touches Mikey, it’s a well known fact.)

“Are you doing okay?” April has to ask, because it’ll drive her crazy if she doesn’t. Mikey was a junior, like all of them, and he was seventeen, also like all of them (except for April, since her birthday was today), but since he was born last everyone was really protective over him. Mikey hated it, being babied, but they couldn’t help it. 

“I’m fine,” Mikey says quickly, his wild, untamed orange curls bobbing slightly as he talks. “Er - um, do you think they’ll notice? The bruising? I mean, my skin _is_ super dark, and - 

“Mikey, of course they’re gonna notice. And if they somehow don't I’ll make sure they know.” April says gently, stepping further into the room.

“No, please don’t tell them! This is your day, I don’t need them being protective mother hens,” Mikey murmurs, always putting others before himself, and April smiles sadly. 

“Honey, Donnie needs to look you over just to make sure you’re totally okay,” April opens her arms for a hug and Mikey steps into her embrace immediately. "Please?" 

“Only for you, April,” he says, and April rests her head on his. She was taller than him now, making him the _shortest_ member of the family, as well as the youngest. “I love you.”

“Love you more,” April ignores his indignant squawk at that and pulls away, staring down at him with a smile. He always managed to make her feel better. “Ready to go see the others?”

“Oh yeah!” he grins. “I’m gonna jump Raph!” 

“Be careful, okay? He’s hurt too.” April laughs as Mikey gives a hesitant agreement. They hold hands as they leave the brothers’ room and Mikey, upon seeing his older brother, immediately runs off to hug him.

Raph starts at seeing the crazy orange haired gremlin run at him but laughs and embraces him. Karai’s there, too, hugging Shini, and as April emerges from the hallway she spots Donnie and Casey over by the windows, talking in quiet voices. Oh, god.

She doesn’t hesitate, sprinting across the apartment towards them. They look towards the movement with raised eyebrows but when they see that it’s her they grin and meet her with open arms. She crashes into them, into both of them, molding into their holds like they've never been apart. “Hey, babe,” Casey smirks in her ear, and she laughs, snuggling in closer. 

“I missed you both so much,” April whispers, and as she pulls away after a moment she feels the tears on her face. “Fuck, um, I didn’t mean to _cry_ \- I'm so sorry - 

Donnie laughs softly, pulling her closer and into a kiss. Her eyes fall closed as she grips his sweatshirt, trying to convey ten different emotions in the span of milliseconds. Oh, she’s missed them. Missed this. It feels like they’ve been apart for eons. Was it really only a week?

Casey takes his place after Donnie’s done, kissing her eyebrows, then her nose, then her chin, then _finally_ giving her what she wants and pressing their lips together. “Happy birthday,” is all he says as they pull apart, and April can literally see the outline of the mark the blaster the Kraang left on him, sees the broken skin and the bruising and she cries a little bit harder. She was so _worried_ -

“Don’t leave again, okay? I was so scared,” she whispers, not knowing if she wanted them to hear it. They hold her tighter at that and she rests her head on Donnie’s shoulder, knowing that Shini was right. They were okay. They didn’t disappear. They were still together. 

“Okay, lovebirds! Break it up,” Raph yells over at them and Casey flips the bird at him. They do separate, after a moment, just to give Donnie and Casey a chance to hug Mikey and greet Shini. Splinter and Tang Shen literally appear out of nowhere then, greeting the people who have been gone for a week, and then they’re all sitting on the sofas, swapping stories. 

April’s nestled snugly in between Donnie and Casey, and she listens avidly as they describe what they figured out about the Kraang. They were experimenting with this thing they called “mutagen” which really did nothing but turn innocent animals into something else, ruining their exoskeleton and even turning them into rabid, feral beasts. Donnie had a sample of that, too, that he wanted to experiment with - and was more than pleased when Leo told him about the brain serum that they’d found. With luck, they’d be able to protect themselves from whatever Shredder and the Kraang threw at them next.

April’s father is another matter entirely, and the next step is to get him out of the “hospital” that Prime’s keeping him at - and Splinter says that the best place for him to go is an _actual_ hospital where he can get actual treatment. It’s not the best solution, but it’s better than letting him rot away in some kind of cell like a vegetable. 

“How are you feeling?” Donnie asks her in an undertone as they move on to other topics, and April looks around at the nine of them. She was - how was she feeling? They were all together, injured but alive, exhausted but smiling, excited because they were closer than ever to taking down their biggest enemies…

“I feel great, Don. I really do,” she says, and the look on his face makes it all worth it. 

“Celebration time! It’s April’s birthday!” Mikey yells loudly when there’s a lull in the conversation, and there’s suddenly a lot of excited ‘happy birthdays’ thrown at her. April smiles so wide her face hurts as Raph stands, grabbing the pizza (of _course_ it’s pizza) from the island and putting the box on the coffee table. Everyone grabs a piece after they sing happy birthday to her and they eat around their conversations. The Sun is finally setting as they pull out _literal presents_ for _her_ and April bites her lip, clenching her fists. _Don’t cry don’t cry don’t crydon’tcry -_

She cries as she unwraps them. Sweatshirts, beanies, books - and a family picture, of all nine of them plus her _from_ all nine of them. On the back of the framed picture are messages from all of them, outlined in different colored pens.

She reads through them while the others look at her, hesitant and waiting for a reaction. She feels more tears fall down her cheeks as she reads about how she's changed their lives, how they're glad she's alive and with them, that they can spend this day with her. Mikey's drawn a sunflower with a smiley face in the corner and it was a little too big so around the picture people wrote their thoughts to it. 

_leo_ \- _mikey. theres no room to write_

_raph - what the hell IS THAT...mikey im scared_

_casey - poor april i feel so bad for her eyes she's gonna have to do so much squinting_

_splinter - Excellent drawing, Michelangelo._

She laughs, but it quickly turns into another sob and she raises her eyes to the people who have literally _saved_ her life and she wants to say so many different things but words are suddenly failing her. “I...don’t know what to say,” she manages to get out. “Thank you all so much, I’m so _so_ happy. I’ll never know what I did to manage to get such an amazing group of people to care about me, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything else. I love you all-...” she has to stop as the tears become too much to handle but she’s so overwhelmed with happiness and she really, really hopes they get the message. 

The cheering tells her that they do. 

-

Once the Sun’s finally gone, and April’s presents are safely stored on her bed in her room, and they’re all curled up on the different couches, Donnie pulls a guitar out. He and Leo are known for being literal musicians in their small family (they can both play guitar and sing) so no one bats an eye as he does it. April’s safely curled around Casey, who’s got an arm around her, and they’re both staring at Donnie with mystified expressions as he and Leo sing Sunflower, Vol. 6 by Harry Styles. 

That’s not the only song they do, of course, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that all the songs they played were April’s favorites. She smiles, fondly, as Raph finally gets the fire going, and relaxes as they play on. It was perfect. They were perfect. She wouldn't have asked for anything more.

April didn’t know where she’d be without them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> <3


	9. the battle for o'neil (part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hellooo

_Hey, you call me up again just to break me like a promise_

_So casually cruel in the name of being honest_

_I’m a crumpled piece of paper lying here_

_‘Cause I remember it all, all, all..too well_

“God, can they play their music _any_ louder,” Raph complains, kneeling next to April on the rooftop. “I mean, it’s Taylor Swift, so at least they have good taste, but - 

“Raph,” April interrupts, swallowing down a snicker. “We’re on the top of an apartment complex, I doubt they care.” 

“S’ distracting as fuck,” Raph whines, pulling the binoculars to his eyes and staring down the patchy building that hopefully housed April’s father. Then he continues, more quietly. “...You ready for this?” 

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” April draws the long, black wool gloves up to her elbows, covering the Hamato tattoo she now adorned on her right wrist. Her long red hair was french-braided down her back, courtesy of Shinigami and her nimble fingers. Her tracksuit, all black but dancing with sparks of yellow across her collarbone and down her sides, a gift from Tang Shen. She couldn’t have ever imagined that this was the life that’d chosen her months ago, but she finds that she fits into it easily. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Raph detects the bitterness in her voice and peels the binoculars from his face, peering up at her. April thinks she can see worry in his eyes. “Tell me that the fact that we’re rescuing your father _won’t_ get you compromised.”

“I told you, and I told Leo, and I told Donnie and Splinter and _maybe_ everyone else twenty million times. I’m fine. Just...can’t believe this is happening. After all this time, he…” she grips her fist, the exposed pale fingers digging into the clothed palm of her hand. “Let’s just do this. I’ll feel better when he’s safe.”

Raph accepts that without comment, turning back to face the building. “We’re set,” he says after another minute, twisting and turning to put the binoculars back into the bag he had slung over his shoulder and to grab the radio from his pocket. “Leo, we’re clear in front, over,” he says into the receiver.

Leo answers immediately. “Just a couple Kraang strays ‘round the back, they’re down. Meet up at the second point, cool? Over.”

“Cool. Over and out,” Raph tosses April the radio and she stuffs it into her own pack. “Still can’t believe we’re using all this military jargon now. Seems stupid and kinda childish,” he stands, jogging over to the fire escape, and she follows, huffing out a laugh. Their footsteps are light and airy and don’t make a noise as they glide down the multitude of stairs, and Raph hops the last set and lands gracefully on the smooth pavement, glancing back up at her before pressing against the wall of the building they’d just descended from. 

April doesn’t hesitate, jumping the railing and landing silently, ignoring the slight protest of her ankles as she joins Raph, knowing she was next to invisible to anyone who wasn’t actively searching her out. The stakes were high, tonight. Being careful was the highest priority.

Feeling April’s breath on the back of his neck, Raph sprints across the street with April on his tail, down the alley alongside the building they’d be extracting her Dad from. They meet Leo by the dumpster, like they originally planned back in their apartment. Leo nods at them and they nod back, kneeling down on the ground and stretching out a blueprint. “Let’s go over the plan, yeah? One more time,” Leo murmurs, seriousness etching from every pore of the usual lighthearted, goofy version of April’s best friend.

 _“Only April and Raph are coming with me,” Leo states seriously_ , _and the apartment is immediately in an uproar._

_“The fuck do you mean, Leo? Why only -_

_“Raph and April are the fastest out of all of you,” Leo continues bluntly, interrupting Casey’s protest. “This is the first time we’ll be going up against a major Kraang base, the first time we’ll be extracting an actual prisoner. This isn’t just patrolling anymore, Casey, we can’t bring the entire team this time. This is serious. One wrong move and everything we’ve done to protect April goes out the window.”_

_“Then why is April going in the first place?” Karai holds her hands to her hips, looking dubious. “She’s top priority for the Kraang, they’ll -_

_“- Do anything to get me, I know,” April turns away from the window, arms crossed, a steely look flashing through her usually calm blue eyes. The others are taken aback by how intimidating she looked, how much different she’d become from that broken girl they’d found back in August. “They took my father from me and I’m getting him back. I’ve gone through too much to give up now. I’m going.”_

_No one argues this time. Donnie clears his throat and spreads a blueprint across the table. “I’ve found an access point into the building. How do you guys feel about crawling?”_

Leo stands, putting the blueprint back safely in the bag slung over his shoulder as April pulls the dumpster out of the way. “Vent system is right where it should be,” Raph remarks, gripping a sai between a hand and sliding the pointy end between the grates, bracing his feet against the ground and pulling. A second later it’s free, and Raph slides the grate over to the side, grabbing the flashlight from April’s outstretched hand and shooting it down the dark tunnel. “Little cramped, but we’ll make it.”

“Let’s go,” Leo orders.

 _“I don’t like this_ ,” _Donnie says again, him and Casey sitting on the bed in his lab, watching April go through her routine check-up of the things she’d be bringing along with them tomorrow night. April sends him a pointed look._

_“I don’t like it either,” April stands, the Hamato crest flashing even more obviously against her pale skin. The tattoo had hurt, really, but it was sore more than anything at this point. Courtesy of Donnie’s equipment doing it’s job, she guessed. Everyone else had one, too, even Mikey (though he’d been hesitant at first, he was never one to stay out of the loop) and April still felt the residual feelings of gooey happiness as she remembered that she was officially a part of them, now. “Sometimes we’ve gotta do things that we don’t wanna do, Dee.You know that.”_

_“I do know that,” Donnie amends, standing and making his way over to her. “Doesn’t mean I have to enjoy sending my girlfriend off into a base where everyone wants her dead.”_

_“You told us never to leave you again, on your birthday,” Casey chimes in from the bed, fighting off the annoying twitch of his right leg. He’d been sitting there for so long his leg was asleep. “You’re about to do the same thing to us. Let us be worried, ‘kay?”_

_April sighs, exasperated. “Don’t you guys understand why I have to do this?” She places her tanto blade on the desk next to her and leans against it, dropping her head into her palms and breathing out heavily. “He’s my Dad. I can’t just leave him in there. I -_

_“Hey,” Donnie says softly, and when she emerges from her hands he’s right in front of her. He takes her hands between his own and squeezes gently. Her taller boyfriend was adorned in his usual purple hoodie, brown hair puffed out just a small bit from it leaning against Casey’s unruly black mess that hadn’t been tamed by his trademarked headband. “It’s okay. Don’t think for a bit, yeah?” he jerks his head back towards the bed, back towards Casey, and April immediately picks up the underlying meaning behind the sentence._

_She feels a tired smile crop up on her face and meets his gaze. “If you’re suggesting what I think you’re suggesting just to get me to call off going tomorrow, you’ve got another thing coming,’Tello -_

_“What, we can’t spend time together before you leave?” Casey asks innocently from the bed, and April feels the rest of her resolve melt away. She follows Donnie back, feeling them both reach to pull her closer. She doesn’t fight it, settles between the two most important people in her entire life._

_“You act like I’m going to war,” she gasps as Donnie presses a chaste kiss to her neck. Casey starts reaching for her clothes and she lets him take the pale yellow sweatshirt from her body, arching her back as Donnie immediately returns to the assault on her neck once it’s gone. “Hngh, please -_

_“You will come back to us tomorrow, you got that?” Casey whispers from her other side, and April’s nodding promptly. Anything to feel those hands trail tantalizingly over her body._

“We’re almost there,” Leo hisses through clenched teeth as they crawl through the vents, taking turns throughout based on Donnie’s careful calculations. They’d been traveling for maybe fifteen minutes through the cramped tunnels, trying their best to overhear conversations of Kraang that passed underneath them and ignoring Raph’s furious cursing every time his backpack got snagged on the wall above them. So far, so good. “Careful, guards right underneath.”

April swallows, glancing through one of the vent openings to the guards down below. They were patrolling the door up ahead. Whatever was inside was valuable, and April fought down the tingling sense of excitement that the “whatever” was her father. After months of being apart…

They wriggle through the next couple of feet quickly, managing to slide over the guard’s heads undetected, and Leo silently removes the grate into the room below, dreads free-falling out of his ponytail as he pokes his head through the dark room for anyone who didn’t belong. When he signals the ‘all-clear’, the three of them drop down quietly. 

April grips the flashlight tighter in her hands and lets it scan the room. Cabinets stocked with surgical gear and other medical supplies, empty hospital beds stripped of sheets. The room was spotless, not a smudge of dirt littering the area. 

April trails her flashlight along the end of the room and nearly drops it, the hand that was clenched at her side covering her mouth to avoid crying out. 

_“Stay safe, okay?” Mikey hugs Leo, then Raph, then April, then Leo again, then Raph for a second time, then hugs April a second longer than his brothers, wide blue eyes and light orange curls making the impending situation of saving her father a lot harder than it had to be._

_She exchanges a fond smile with Donnie over the top of Mikey’s head and presses an affectionate kiss to it. “‘Course, Mike. Back in no time.”_

_He glances up to her, sees the look in her eyes, then pulls her back down, whispers a sentence in her ear that makes all her blood freeze. “You really don’t think you’ll come back, do you?”_

_April pulls away, heart hammering in her throat as she contemplates how - or if - she could answer that accusation honestly. The other members of their found family are milling around, saying goodbyes and good-lucks, so no one sees the horrified expression spread across her face besides Mikey and Donnie, who frowns and tugs Casey’s hand so he can see it too. “I..._

_“You better. Come back to us, I mean. To all of us. Does this...” Mikey shows her his matching Hamato tattoo, the black ink scratched into the brown skin. “Does this not mean anything to you? You’re a part of us - of our Clan, and - and you better not leave it. Okay?”_

_“Okay,” April replies, throat heavy and eyes building with tears that weren’t there before. “Can I have another hug? For good luck?”_

_Mikey’s hard expression softens and he tugs her forward again. “‘Course, babe. Anything for you. Love you.”_

_“Love you back.”_

“Dad…” April gets out, the flashlight shaking in her grip. Leo and Raph’s flashlights join her’s on the broken shell of a man, and she’s trembling, it’s hard to breathe - 

_Inhale, exhale_. _Come on, April, breathe._

She gets across the room, working furiously with the restraints that trapped his wrists to the bed. Leo and Raph join her, helping her free her father from the prison he’d been trapped in for long - for far too long. Kirby O’Neil is unconscious, but April cups his cheek and presses a shaky kiss to her father’s forehead. “Let’s get out of here,” she whispers, to either him or the oldest Hamato brothers, she didn’t know. Raph breathes out, preparing himself, and lifts the older man in his arms bridal style. 

“He’s so...light,” Raph mutters, easily shifting the backpack on his back as he hoists him easily. April’s never been so glad that Raph worked out excessively until this moment. “Okay, Leo. Call evac.”

“Already did,” Leo let’s a tinge of that usual smugness enter his voice and makes his way to the far side of the room, glancing out the window. They were on the fourth story, too high to jump out of but the perfect amount of space to grapple down. “Leatherhead’s on his way. ‘Pril, if you could do the honors?”

April pulls the broken bits of a spark plug out of her backpack and hands them to Leo. “You sure this will work?”

“Yeah. the stuff in these things can break even tempered glass. And this is definitely tempered glass,” Leo knocks quietly on the glass just to make sure. “We’re good. Stand back.” 

They do as he says as Leo cranes his arm back and throws the bits at the window, surprised that it proved correct - the window breaks flawlessly and pieces fly down into the adjoining alley far below. April’s sure Donnie has a lengthy explanation about why the material in spark plugs can break windows, but at the moment April staves away her curiosity. Get her family to safety, that was the bottom line. 

“Raph, you and him first,” Leo says, dropping his own pack to the ground. Pulling the blueprint back out, he sets it to the side as he pulls out a harness and three sets of rope. Raph sets Kirby down on one of the adjoining beds that weren’t littered with shards of glass and pulls the harness on in record timing as Leo fastens one of the three ropes to a sturdy cabinet leg across the room. “Good to go,” he says, hooking the end of the rope to Raph’s harness. “Let’s get you out of here.”

“Hurry,” is all Raph whispers back, reaching to grab Kirby before slowly lowering himself out of the hole that April had been chipping away as quietly as she could so it could be escapable through. Leo feeds the rope down slowly and April watches through the window, breathing out in relief when they touch down gently on the pavement. Raph signals up to her and April nods, turning to face Leo - 

And blinks disbelievingly at the gun in her face. “Hello, April,” Kraang Prime leers at her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PAFKSADFJLAJ ive never written a cliffhanger before this is so much fun


	10. the battle for o'neil (part 2)

April swallows thickly, staring up at the man that she had evaded for so long. The gun’s trained on her, right on her, and April’s never had a gun pointed at her but she’s terrified. One flick of a finger and it would be over forever. 

“Leo…” April gets out, searching for her dread-locked friend, and Prime laughs, snapping with his fingers to snag her attention. She looks at him, and he points to their left, where one of his loyal little minions pressed Leo against the wall, holding him to it so firmly he’d strained his neck. “How…”

“Oh, how indeed,” Prime giggles nasally, flicking with his wrist to let Leo up. Before Leo could even attempt to take a step away the man _shoves_ him and he goes stumbling into April, who immediately steadies him. He looked _sick_ , breathing in and out raggedly, and before April can say a word he takes one of her hands and presses it to the back of his neck. A puncture wound. He was injected with something. 

“What did you do to him?” April asks desperately, pushing him behind her and away from Prime. His breathing grows faster and faster as he struggles to take in air, his forehead lying on the nape of her neck. “What did you - 

“Sorry we’re late,” purrs a new voice, and all the occupants in the room glance over to the door. “Why’s it so dark in here? Surprise party we didn’t know about?” The room comes to life and Leo whines weakly. She needed to get him out of here, but her attention on him lapses as she takes in the figures at the door.

She’d met Bradford twice before, and every new opportunity she got to see him she’d rather she’d seen anything else. Besides him is a slimmer, darker man - Xever - twirling a knife between his fingers. “Oh, you did catch them. Great job, Prime. Glad to see everything’s been working out,” Xever says silkily, stepping farther into the room. He side-eyes Prime’s goons nervously anyway, and it makes something in April’s stomach curl. 

Keep them talking. Raph must have figured something’s wrong by now, right? “How did you...what?” It’s not that hard to sound shocked, because if not only did the _Kraang_ know they were there, but the Foot - 

“Haven’t figured it out already, love?” Prime smiles impishly, and April shivers, because the impressive looking man before her was really nothing but a cold brain in a body. “Why don’t you tell her, Bradford? It was your idea, after all.”

“You have a mole,” Bradford states, not bothering to beat around the bush, and at April’s horrified expression he grins evilly before elaborating nastily. “I believe you call her Shinigami?”

It’s silent for an eternity. 

April can’t breathe.

“She wouldn’t,” she chokes out. Shinigami was one of them, she -

“Not willingly, of course,” Xever shrugs, holding up a jar. In it was a wriggling worm, maybe five inches long, twisting and twitching and obviously yearning to be buried in the ginger’s brain. “Stockman’s been working to perfect this, and we just _had_ to test it on someone. Perfect opportunity was your little ‘infiltration attempt’. You were all so focused on _poor_ ,” he steps forward, “ _i_ _nnocent_ ,” rattling the brain worm in the jar as he talks, “ _Michelangelo_ ,” he stops a few feet from Prime, drinking in her terror with a face full of pure content.

“You…” April’s mind washes out the shock and replaces it with cold fury. They’d taken her father, they’d injected Leo with something that rendered him useless to defend himself, they’d _mind-controlled_ her friend, they’d _ruined_ Splinter and Tang Shen’s lives, ruined _their lives_! “ _Fuck_ you,” she seethes to both sets of her enemies, clenching her fists. “You aren’t touching any of them ever again. I’ll kill you if you try.” 

“Funny words from a girl with a gun at her head,” Prime chuckles, and as April watches he flicks the little knob at the top down. It was loaded. Reminding April that she was terribly outnumbered. 

Well. He still had the safety on. What a fucking idiot.

April ignores the laugh building in her throat as her eyes jump from face to face. She needed to get Leo out of there, and the only way to do that was -

Swallowing, she realized what she had to do. 

She knew it would come to this, right? As long as they didn’t touch her family, well…

April would do anything.

“You’re right. You have all the cards here,” the anger melts off her face, returning with a look of defeat. “You beat me, alright? Just - you can have me, okay? Let him go,” she gestures to Leo, who was doing a very good job of being quiet. “Please. I’ll go with you. Just don’t hurt him,” she pleads, looks up at the man that she’d been running from her entire life. She was grasping at straws and she knew it, everyone in the room did. “You can do tests on me, I won’t complain, I won’t do anything, you can _have_ me - 

“April,” Leo stammers throatily, realizing what she was doing. Forget about that good job of ‘being quiet’. “No - 

“I’m not letting them do anything to you, ‘Nardo,” April reaches behind her and, without moving her gaze from Prime’s beady black eyes, entangles her fingers with Leo’s and squeezes hard. She murmurs under her breath, so quietly only he could hear it. “ _L_ _ove you_.”

“No,” Leo repeats, desperate and so sick and April feels the sting of tears building behind her eyes. “April, you can’t - can’t do this, pl -

“Please,” April interrupts desperately, watching Prime mull it over. After literal eons he slowly lowers the gun. 

“Fine,” he says, and April feels the relief _ooze_ from her body while Xever and Bradford begin protesting. April tunes them out, so relieved, _so_ unbelievably relieved, and leads Leo backwards to the window. She knew Prime wasn’t letting him go out of the goodness of his heart, knew there had to be some ulterior motive, but if it got Leo out she was willing to go down without a fight.

“No, I’m not…” Leo stumbles off, clutching her wrists desperately. “M’not leaving you,” he says, and April really starts crying then, so grateful for him, for all of them. “Can’t leave, you _promised_ \- promised Mike -

“You heard that?” April laughs through the tears as Leo nods languidly, tears trailing out of his eyes too, and she wishes she could see them all one last time, she’d prepared for this, not coming back, but - oh, it hurt so much. “Tell him I’m sorry, okay? Tell Mikey I love him. Tell Don and Casey I - I love them, too, and - Raph and Karai and Shini - 'n tell Shini it wasn’t her fault, okay? I…” she’s sobbing now, the tears making it so hard to breathe, and she can feel the enemy, they were so close, too close, but she couldn’t focus on anything besides Leo. “I love you, thank you, thank you for everything -” 

“M’not leaving you,” he repeats, angry this time even though he can barely keep his eyes open. “You go down, I'm going with you, O - O’Neil. Love you, too...but you don’t get to come into our lives - and just walk out of t-them...”

“Stop,” she cups his face in a hand, tugging a dread gently with her other, pulling their foreheads together and trying to burn the image of unwavering and unconditional support and trust and _love_ into her mind. “Let me do this, okay? Let me do this _one_ thing right - 

“Times up,” Prime mimes looking down at his wrist, even though no watch adorned his arm anywhere. He seemed to come to an agreement with the other Foot members, because they were off to the side, almost sulking. “Time to go.”

“No,” Leo screams as she finally turns away from him. Everything felt like it was moving in slow motion. April looks up at her leering enemy as Leo pleads and sobs behind her. “ _No_ , you can’t - can’t do this, none of you can, _fuck_ you all, April, April please, please don’t go, _please -_

She takes one step towards Prime, resigned to her fate.

And the room _explodes._

-

She’s on the floor when her eyes find it safe enough to reopen, and she lifts her head from what was once spotless tile, eyes adjusting as a bit of the dust clears. What _happened_ \- 

There was a ringing, growing louder and louder in her ears and April carefully pulled herself to her knees, clutching the side of her forehead as she staved off the pain in her head. When she pulls her hand away from her face she sees the blood and swallows down the nausea. The room was full of smoke, and dust and _more_ dust, and the ringing wasn’t really subsiding but April can hear screaming, too, and she blinks in confusion as -

Xever doesn’t have a _hand_. He’s clutching at the remainder of his arm, caterwauling and wailing - so _that’s_ what the screaming is from. Bradford’s lying next to him, motionless. The Kraang soldiers that littered the room earlier are in _pieces_ , literally - they didn’t seem to be human. Maybe Donnie was right about them being - being _robots_ -

The room is on fire, debris laying everywhere, exposed wires trailing from the ceiling and she needs to get out of here, but she can’t, not yet, she needs -

Leo.

April drags herself to her feet slowly, too slowly, looking around for her friend, for her _family member_ with blurry eyes and blood trailing through her hair and down the side of her face and - and she finally sees him, retching and coughing and she stumbles towards him, dragging the rubble off of him and he’s got a _hospital bed_ laying across one of his legs, and she pulls desperately at it but she can’t - 

“April,” a voice says gently, and it’s - it’s Raph - and April finally realizes that they're safe - _Raph's_ here, recon was here. “It’s okay. It’s - 

His sentence is cut off as she stumbles past him and pukes. Raph manages to get the bed off of Leo and help him up, trailing his arm over his shoulder as he pulls his older brother to his feet. “Come on, babe,” Raph reaches with his other hand to pull her up and she lets him, tears joining the blood and she _still_ doesn’t know what’s going on until she sees their evac.

“Thought evac would be a car, ‘Phael. Didn’t know - didn’t know Leatherhead could fly a damn _helicopter_ ,” April manages after another violent series of hacking, and Raph steadies her again once she’s able to properly stand. Mikey’s old boyfriend was quite a character, even for the Hamato’s standards. 

“Gonna have a word with Donnie about - ‘bout his _missile launchers_ ,” Leo stumbles as they get to the edge, and Raph helps him get into the hovering helicopter alongside April’s father. April stares at Leo, notices how his dreads were singed and completely burned off in places, the expert craftsmanship of his hair ruined, and his foot looked destroyed, and he was still _sick_ , Christ. He needed medical attention. They all needed to get out of here before more Kraang showed up, before - 

Raph turns back to help her, and his eyes widen. She’s about to ask when she hears the gun cock behind her, and she turns to face Kraang Prime. “You look horrible,” she observes detachedly, noting the leg that dragged uselessly behind him and the twitching of the limp arm at his side. 

His eyes are wild and unfocused. “You’re coming with me! That was the deal, you said if I let them go you’d -

“I know what I said,” April cuts him off, a grin playing on the corner of her mouth. This was almost too _easy_. Energy coursed through her bones and all she wanted to do was make the man in front of her _hurt_ for what he did. “Think there’s been a change of plans, wouldn’t you say so?” 

Prime laughs desperately, looking completely out of his element. “Funny words from a girl with a gun at her -

As quick as her broken, battered body will allow her, April lunges forward, unsheathing her tanto blade from its hold in the sheath riding on her hips and before Prime can make a single movement to defend himself, she’d - 

April slit her greatest enemies’s throat with the razor sharp blade, feeling the flames of victory and _revenge_ and - “Safety mode was _on_ , dipshit,” She watches the horror dance through his irises and feels nothing. “Burn in hell.”

He gasps, blood spurting from his throat and his mouth and the gun drops from his hand, which April weakly kicks aside, the burst of adrenaline already fading, and Raph’s there to catch her as she begins to tip over. “Let’s go home,” he whispers, sending an apathetic look to Prime, picking her up like he’d picked her father up twenty minutes - an _eon_ \- before. April makes a noise of encouragement, because that sounded like a _great_ idea, and promptly passes out in his arms. 

-

“April, can you hear me?” 

“April…”

“...needs more sleep, if she doesn’t wake up soon we’ll take her to a proper hospital….”

“...”

“‘Pril, wake up, we miss you...”

“How could you, April? You’d - you’d give yourself up, I - you’re too stupidly good for this world and, please, please wake up, _please_ -

“Come back so I can yell at you for almost leaving us, okay? For -

“Leo woke up today, why won’t you? What am I not doing right?”

“Ape, _please_ , it’s been a whole week, just - 

“Red, pl -

…

…

…

...

 _...guys_?

-

When April opens her eyes, she’s shocked by how _bright_ everything is and immediately squeezes them shut. She fists the fabric of - of _something_ , recognizing the fabric and realizing it’s the couch. She coughs, turning on her side, overstimulated and already beginning to panic and -

“April, oh my god, okay. Deep breaths, Red. It’s just me, breathe,” April recognizes Casey’s voice and almost instantly relaxes, mollified under his presence. After a second she cracks open her eyes and everything’s _still_ too bright.

“I’ll get Donnie, don’t do anything or go anywhere or - anything else,” Casey says, and the presence besides her leaves. It’s only gone for a couple of seconds before April can hear what sounds like a fleet of people running back in her direction, and she winces, clutching at her head - or what she thought was her head and not a bunch of bandages. 

“Hey, baby, it’s me, it’s Donnie. Take these, okay?” her boyfriend places a couple pills in her palm, and helps her sit up, and without bothering to question it she throws the pills back and swallows. Anything to get the pounding migraine under control.

After a couple moments of heavy breathing April tries for the third time to open her eyes and finds that she can finally fucking _see_. 

“There you are,” Donnie smiles, kneeling in front of her and cupping her face gently, still looking so completely shocked that she was awake, and April tries to speak but can’t, her throat feels awful. “Casey, water. Please.”

“Got it,” Casey rushes off into the kitchen and comes running back maybe twenty seconds later with water. April takes the glass from him gratefully and drinks, so _thirsty_. Her throat feels less parched, her head feels better - the drugs must be working. 

“Thank you,” she tries, not managing more than a throaty grumble, then rolls her eyes. Still can’t talk. Donnie laughs, tears slipping down his cheeks, and before April can blink he’s pressed a kiss to her chapped lips. She grins, her weak arms trembling as they reach to pull Donnie back, properly kissing him. Casey sits down next to her and she reaches for his hand, ghosts a kiss across his fist.

“I... _god dammit throat let me speak_ ,” she growls, glaring down at her knees, then tries _again_ and finally manages to get something resembling words out. “Didn’t think I’d ever see you two again,” she manages, voice as weak as her arms were and they have to lean closer so she doesn’t strain herself. “So scared…” Then her eyes widened. “Shini - 

“She’s fine, Leo managed to tell me before he passed out. There’s no brain worms anywhere.” Donnie promises, watching as April slumps in relief. “Relax, okay? You’ve been out for a week.”

“Is everyone okay?” She asks quietly, almost terrified of the answer. “Please -

“We’re all fine, Red,” Casey entangles their hands tighter together, squeezing gently. “You - do you remember everything that happened?” 

April presses her free hand against the side of her face, eyes clenched shut and breathing out raggedly as the memories come rushing back. “I - I _killed_ him,” she remembers, remembering slashing her blade against Prime’s throat. “I was so - _angry_ , and - 

“And you did the right thing. He’s gone, he can’t hurt you or your father or any of us ever again,” Donnie reassures her, settling between her legs and leaning an arm against her left knee, staring up at her with nothing short of adoration in his mahogany eyes. “You saved Leo’s life.”

“ _Raph and Leatherhead_ saved Leo’s life,” April protests.

“You bought them time,” Casey argues. “Splinter thinks that if you hadn’t spent all that time talking Prime down Bradford n’ Xever would have taken Leo back to Shredder.”

April thinks of Leo, alone, trapped and at Shredder’s mercy. “I’d never let that happen,” she says. “Never. I’d never let any of you get taken by any of them.”

“Then why would you think we’d let them take _you_?” A new voice says, and the three of them look up. Leo’s standing there, with crutches, leg wrapped in a cast. Raph and Mikey are behind him, eyes stretched wide at seeing that she was awake. 

“April,” Mikey exhales, running to her side, and Casey moves out of the way so he can sit and wrap his arms around her. “Oh, we were so worried -

“I’m sorry,” April murmurs into the hug, because she really doesn’t know what else to say. That’s not even the entire truth, either, because if any of them were in danger she’d gladly do the same thing over again to protect them. “I missed you,” she presses a kiss to his curly hair and he just snuggles closer. “I missed you all.” she confesses, sheepishly, angling her eyes downward at the absolute fury in Leo’s eyes. 

“ _Don’t you ever do that again, you hear me_?” Leo’s made it several paces forward, and Raph carefully takes the arm of the couch on April’s left, close but giving her space. After a moment he slides closer, and she can feel him giving her a once-over, just to make sure she was okay. April finds it easier to focus on that then focus on Leo, who’s still waiting for an answer, and she knows she has to tell him - tell them - the truth.

“I can’t, Leo. If anything comes between you and them it’ll be me. I can’t promise you that, because...I love you, all of you. You’ve saved my life, you gave me a home when I had nothing left. I’d do anything to keep you safe, even if it meant - 

She doesn’t have to finish her sentence. They all know what she means. “I’m sorry, Leo. But I’m not. Do you understand?” 

Leo drags a hand through his dark brown hair, dreads almost returned to their former glory. April can detect Shini’s handiwork on it and smiles. The next time she saw her Shini was getting the biggest hug. “I...yeah, I understand. I’d probably have done the same thing. I just don’t want it to fall to you...” he looks miserable, and April feels a flash of guilt when she remembers she's been out for a week. "We were so worried that you - 

“Hey, I'm still here. I'm here and I'm not going anywhere, so pipe down!" April smiles assuredly. "M’not letting you make all the tough calls, Leo,” April leans against Mikey and reaches for Raph’s hand. He takes it after a second, squeezing gently. “M’not letting anything happen to you guys ever again if I can help it. Shut up and deal with it."

Leo sighs in exasperation, but a fond expression colors his face nevertheless. “So there’s nothing I can say that’ll change your mind.”

“Nope.”

“You’ll go charging into battle if one hair is harmed on Mikey’s head.”

“Uh, obviously? Wouldn’t everyone?”

"Or anyone _else's_ hair?" 

"Leo - 

“Have I ever mentioned how I’m also madly in love with you?”

“ _Hey_ ,” Donnie and Casey snap, and everyone laughs.

Leo steps around the coffee table and Donnie’s lanky body, plopping himself down right next to April. Raph grunts a bit as he’s jostled but moves out of the way. All eyes are on the two of them. “But seriously, I...thank you. For staying with me, for...for _protecting_ me. Means everything,” Leo pauses, hesitating, and April’s lips soften into a soft smile. She takes the initiative and wraps him in a hug. He doesn’t even wait before hugging her back. 

There's so many things she wants to say to all of them, but she doesn't need to. They already knew. They were hers, she was theirs. Forever and always.

“Don’t mention it.”

It's silent for a couple long moments before Leo pulls away, and he still looks exhausted but _happy_ , and April presses another hand to the bandages on her head, just as exhausted but as happy. They were all safe. It was okay to relax. "Can - can I possibly have something to eat? I'm - 

Her stomach rumbles as if to prove a point, and Mikey's rumbles in response. "Pizza?" Mikey asks, grinning, still glued to April's other side, and Casey thwacks his shoulder gently. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DIDSSKDLJ me when i ...
> 
> have i ever mentioned how much i adore leo n april's relationship because platonic or not they've got my entire heart
> 
> this story became so much. deeper. in like two chapters ugh hey 
> 
> we're on the final stretch now idk how many chapters but we're getting close <33


End file.
